These are simple parables, really.

But as I read and studied them both throughout the week, I began to wonder if they do something unlike any of the other parables that Jesus tells. I began to wonder if they unmask the essential crisis of Christian faith in America today.

Let me explain further…

These short parables call us to invest our entire lives – everything we have and everything we are – for the sake of the Kingdom of God. They invite us to see the Kingdom as something so valuable that it is worth selling absolutely everything we must in order to enjoy possessing it.

But how many of us today are willing to do just that? As one commentator on this parable put it “We want to have a little bit of the Kingdom of God, along with everything else.”

It seems to me that the struggle of most of our churches and our denominations is that few of us are willing to do just that very thing. And I can only guess that it just might have something to do with the fact that we do not fully appreciate the true value of the Kingdom of God.

Let me rephrase things in this way:

In what ways is the Kingdom of God, so precious to you, that you’d sell everything for it?

A few years ago, a guy by the name of Dan Kimball wrote a book called “They like Jesus, but not the Church.” In it, Kimball says that people are attracted to the teachings of Jesus. They are willing to explore what he has to say. They are even willing to commit to put some of his ideas into practice.

They just don’t want anything – at all – to do with the church.

Why might that be?

Well, here’s the deal. When Kimball began to ask young people about the church he said the sorts of things that came to mind were these:

* The church is an organized religion with a political agenda.
* The church is judgmental and negative.
* The church is dominated by males and oppresses females.
* The church is homophobic.
* The church arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong.
* The church is full of fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally.

Whether those perceptions are valid or not is not really the point. The point is that those things do not offer a very compelling vision of the Kingdom of God, do they?

There are not very many people who are going to come running to the church to give up everything they have and everything they are in order to invest in that sort of enterprise.

I realize that those particular perceptions may not be your idea about what the Kingdom of God is about or what the church is really like, but even if those things don’t ring true to you, we are not off the hook. There is still another problem facing us today.

A few weeks ago, nearly 10% of the churches in our denomination had representatives at a conference in Florida. These folks gathered together for conversations about a new movement of churches, which has since organized into The Evangelical Covenant of Presbyterians.

It is not clear what this particular movement of churches will become. It remains to be seen whether they will remain a movement within existing denominational structures or if they will break off and form a new denomination.

As you might suspect, a primary driving force behind this gathering of churches is a reaction to recent decisions around our denomination’s ordination standards.

But putting that particular concern aside, what I hear these folks calling for and what they wish to see and to dream about is a renewed missional impulse that many have felt is lacking in the current ethos of our churches and our denomination.

They have a point. And I am with them on that, 100%.

You see, when churches become so invested or concerned in what has often been called the ABCs of Ministry (Attendance, Building, and Cash) then they have lost their way. When denominational structures do nothing more than spin their wheels to keep the status quo in place then they too have lost their way.

No one wants to be on a committee just to be on a committee. No one wants to volunteer to do a job just because it needs to be done. No one wants to give money in order to keep the doors open. No one wants to sit in a worship service just to keep a pew warm.

Over the long haul, those things are just not compelling enough to keep things going.

Most people simply do not want to invest themselves in keeping an institution going. What they want instead is a compelling vision, a compelling ideal, to invest their lives in. They want to be involved in something that makes a difference, that has a meaningful impact, and that changes lives.

That sort of thing is a compelling vision of the Kingdom of God. That sort of thing is worth selling all one has in order to invest in the kingdom.

This week, as I considered the call of these parables to give all for the sake of the Kingdom, I came to the conclusion that to fully hear that call, these parables need to be read in two different directions.

The first direction we need to read them is this: That we are – and really the whole world is – the pearl or the buried treasure that has been bought and purchased by God at a very great price.

When we read the parables in that way, we come to understand and see that the entire world is precious to God, precious enough that God gave everything God could give in order to purchase and redeem it.

One of the most quoted scripture verses in the Bible is John 3:16 where it says that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. John 3:17 which follows is just as, if not more, compelling. It says:

‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

This, I believe, is the sort of ideal of the Kingdom that makes investing one’s life in it a truly worthy investment. It means that God is not just in the business of saving souls. But rather God’s plan for salvation is so much bigger and broader than that. God’s plan is for the redemption of the whole world.

That’s why Christians were invested in things like fighting slavery and in the Civil Rights movement. It’s why there is a burgeoning movement against human trafficking.

On a more local level it’s why we give to the food pantry and support local ministries like Olivet and many others. It’s why we run a day care, to show and share Christian love to families and children.

It’s because these sorts of things really do matter to God and to God’s kingdom. These sorts of things are worth investing our lives in, because Jesus himself gave his very life for the sake of the whole world.

We are, the world is the pearl and the treasure which has been purchased by God.

Once we have gotten that first direction for reading these parables right, then I think we can better hear Jesus’ invitation to invest out entire lives – everything we have and everything we are in the work of the Kingdom.

We will be more willing to invest in it because we will see that the Kingdom’s foundation is a foundation of love.

As the wise old Episcopal priest, Robert Farrar Capon wrote on these parables, “The mystery of the Kingdom is a mystery of love and wants nothing less than a free offering of complete simplicity.”

No one should ever feel compelled to write a book called, “They like Jesus, but not the Church.” Or to produce a video called “I love Jesus, but not religion.”

That sort of thing should never, ever happen, because, if we’re true to the gospel, our expression of the Christian faith will be based wholly and completely on a vision of love, not one that wags its finger at and condemns the world.

These parables invite us to give freely and completely of ourselves in love of God and love of neighbor, because God has first wholly and completely given God’s self freely to us. The invite us to offer ourselves in self-giving sacrifice to our children our neighbors, and to the world around us.

Our call as a congregation, cannot, must not be, to simply keep the doors of this church open. It is not to keep a person in the pulpit as the pastor. It is not to keep a daycare running.

Your call as members is not to give money to the church’s operating budget, or to volunteer your time and energy to any of the particular tasks that need to be done.

Rather – your call – our call – is to invest ourselves in the enterprise of offering the life giving love, mercy, and grace of God found for us in Jesus Christ. The question for each of us to search our souls and to answer is this: Will you give it your all?

Today’s parable told by Jesus is another farming parable in which someone sows seeds in a field. Let’s hear it again:

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

Now, unlike the last two parables we looked at so far, this one is short, and it comes with no explanation from Jesus. In fact most parables are not explained or interpreted by Jesus. The last two parables were simply exceptions to the general rule.

This parable is pretty straight forward. In fact, the only thing that is peculiar about it is its note of exaggeration.

The mustard seed is not in fact the smallest seed known. There are other types of seeds that are much smaller. Also, the tree that a mustard seed grows up to be is not all that huge. It’s big yes, but it’s not really big enough for most birds to make their nest.

But Jesus doesn’t need to get the details down all nice and precise in order to make his point. We get the idea. Something so small, that you have a hard time imagining it being anything but small, over time grows into something very, very big.

To make his point, Jesus could have just used the image of an acorn which grows into a mighty oak tree or maybe, in a modern scientific version, he could have talked about a tiny single cell that grows into a great big human being.

No matter how the parable is told, the point is this:

Despite humble and small beginnings, the Kingdom of God flourishes into something beyond what we might ever think imaginable. I mean it is pretty amazing to look at an acorn and to think that someday it will be a tree. Or to speak with a young boy and to think that one day he will grow up to be a man.

So far, in this sermon series, as I have looked at each parable, I have tried to ask the question, “What is the challenge here?” “What is Jesus trying to help us see and to understand by telling us this parable?”

I think the challenge here is to constantly remember the importance of small beginnings. Or perhaps that the most seemingly inconsequential things can have a huge impact. Or maybe those things that seem weak and foolish prove to be anything but.

This is a dynamic that – more often than not – seems to be employed by God. Like Jesus, the Apostle Paul captures this idea in this way when he writes in his first letter to the church in Corinth saying:

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

Likewise, in a similar way to what I said about last week’s parable, this whole notion of the mustard seed is vividly modeled for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The one who rather than picking up arms or bringing forth the vengeance of God instead chooses to lay down his life for the sake of his friends. Christ, inexplicably and embarrassingly suffers the humiliation of death on a roman cross.

This makes no sense.

And yet, here we are gathered some 2000 years later, studying the life, ministry, and teachings of this one called Jesus. Seeking to follow him and to walk in his way, as best we know how. Striving to live faithful lives of worship and praise to God and discipleship to Christ.

For as the parable says, truly, from the smallest of the mustard seeds grows the biggest of plants.

I think, for us, this particular parable presses a challenge in an even better way, yet. That is to say, the parable challenges us to consider that we should not lose hope or despair when it seems like we don’t have enough or that we cannot do enough to affect change.

Let me illustrate, what I mean, in this way. Last winter, Lori and I took a short trip up to Decorah. We just happened to be there the weekend of a film festival so we decided to attend one of the films being screened.

The film we saw was called “One Small Act.” If you ever get the chance to see it, you should, because it is a powerful illustration of this parable of the mustard seed.

The “One Small Act” spoken of in this film is the act of a simple Swedish woman, a teacher, by the name of Hilde Backe, who did nothing more than mail off a few bucks a month in order to sponsor the education of some young, rural Kenyan student.

Little does she know, that eventually, the student she sponsored, a young boy by the name of Chris Mburu, graduates from college. He then goes on to earn a degree from Harvard Law School, and becomes a Human Rights Lawyer for the United Nations.

Wanting to return a good deed done towards him, Mburu decides to start a scholarship program for young, rural Kenyans from his village. As he works to put together a foundation, he decides to call it the Hilde Back Foundation, in honor of the woman who sponsored him so many years ago.

Mburu, eventually sets out to meet Hilde Backto thank her for what she did. When they meet, they strike up a very unlikely friendship. And Hilde Back is honored to travel to Kenya to celebrate the establishment of the foundation in her name.

It is a moving film. With clarity and grace, it bears witness to the ripple effect that a small, simple, single action can create in the world. The movie is a visual telling of the parable Jesus tells us here, about how a small seed can grow into a mighty bush that provides sustenance and shelter for others.

And perhaps that’s what the parable calls us to remember most.

Hilde starts out the film saying “There is so much need in the world, you have to do something to help. It seemed so natural to donate some money to a child. And sometimes you wonder, does it help?”

Yes. Yes it does.

Usually we think big and splashy…that’s what we need to have a real impact.

But really, what makes the most significant change in the world are those small, faithful, actions done each and every day. Or perhaps those responses we make to the nudging of the Holy Spirit, listening to and the acting upon the still small voice wooing us to respond.

Those are the things that have powerful, longterm, and lasting effects on the world.

All of us have opportunities to do little things. But we can never guess how far reaching some of the results may be. The secret is God at work within it, for truly, little is much when God is in it. Even the smallest of seeds, when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and it becomes a tree.

Will you pray with me?

Lord of all things, forgive our fascination with bigness. You chose to enter our earth as a child; and that itself should be proof enough that you are not as taken with size as we are. Remembering that, we may hold our breath in anticipation each time we see something small, something unlikely, something divinely wonderful. Help us to see that you are at work in even our humblest but faithful actions. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

This is the 2nd sermon on the parables of Jesus.

Last week we looked at the parable of the Sower. That particular parable told the story of a farmer who sowed seed in a field. The seed landed on four different types of soil, but the only seed that produced a great harvest was the seed that landed on the good soil.

In today’s parable, Jesus returns again to the theme of a farmer sowing seed in a field. But this story comes with a twist: an enemy comes to sow weeds among the planted wheat. The wheat and the weeds grow together and the workers are vexed about what they should do about it.

Let’s hear the parable again:

‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.

So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?”

He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?”

But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’

It’s hard to even know where to begin with such a parable, but what I might suggest is that we keep in mind what I mentioned in my sermon last week:

Parables are primarily meant to convince and to persuade. So, when we read a parable, we should ask: What exactly is Jesus attempting to convince and persuade us of in telling this parable?

And usually, what Jesus is trying to do is to change our minds about the way we think things are. As I said last week, Jesus is not interested in confirming the ways we normally think about and see the world, rather Jesus intends for his parables to upset us, to shake up the way we see things.

So on to the question: What’s the challenge of this parable?

Well, I think the challenge here is quite similar to the challenge we heard last week in relation to the parable of the sower.

That parable, I said, reveals that growth in the Kingdom of God is beyond our control. We have no control over how and where the seed grows. We have no control over the harvest. If there is even a harvest – at all – it is a miraculous harvest.

In today’s parable Jesus again tells us about the Kingdom of God. This time however, the thrust of the parable reveals that despite the appearance of evil in the world, the Kingdom of God can always be found, slowly and quietly doing its work.

The point of this parable, I think, is to be patient. After all God by nature is patient and long-suffering and always has a long term view of things in mind. So we too are invited to be patient, and to consider that no matter how much we might like to be, we are ultimately not in control.

What a challenge.

This parable is a challenge because we are not always very patient with ourselves…

Think about how impatient we can be. How often have you struggled with thinking something like, “Why can’t I ever get organized? What I need is some discipline. I should have done this already.” Or maybe, “Why can’t I lose weight? I really need to exercise more.”

Even though it does little good, we are constantly putting ourselves down. And over time it can do great damage to our hearts and our souls.

What if – instead – we just made it our goal to live our own life as best we could and simply relax? What if we stopped wishing we were like someone else? Or wishing that we lived some other person’s life? Imagine how your life might be different.

The same sort of struggle can come in making decisions in life.

The reality is that there are seldom good vs. bad decisions to be made. If things were that obvious then decisions would never be that difficult. Instead of fretting so much, maybe we should employ patience, prayer, and discernment when it comes to making decisions. Or maybe sometimes we should just relax, go with our gut and then sit back and see what the results are.

The most important thing though is to bank on God’s patience.

After all, God knows we are works in process. God understands the sorts of mistakes that come with growing and with living. And sometimes we just have to trust that God is quite okay with not pulling out the weeds while the wheat is still growing. So maybe we should be too.

This parable is also a challenge because we are not always patient with others…

More often than not we don’t exercise patience in accepting others as they are. We want to change them or fix them. We want them to like what we like, to have the same dreams we have, and to drive the car the way we think they should.

We are constantly trying to control things and situations. We try to control people. We try to do what we can to pressure, to convince, to persuade, and do whatever we can to get our way. I suppose it’s just something that is a part of human nature.

But real love means accepting others as they are, not demanding that they be who we want them to be. What we can do, instead, is love others and pray for the patience and humility to accept whatever will be.

If we don’t do that, if we fail to exercise patience, if we strive so hard to control, more often than not, we will just end up hacking away at the weeds while at the same time destroying and damaging the wheat we are so intent on trying to save.

Finally this parable is a challenge because we are not always patient with the world in which we live.

It’s funny how often God gets the blame for the mess of the world.

We want God to straighten out the messes we read about in the newspapers or on the internet. We want God to end what we started. We wish God would put an end to people dying in wars, to famine caused by corrupt governments, or to stop violence in our schools.

We ask: Why doesn’t God break into our world and bring justice, peace, and goodness?

The parable does not give us much of an answer to the question of where evil comes from or what we are to do about it.

Instead, the parable simply encourages us to consider that despite the presence of evil, the Kingdom of God is always present and at work. The kingdom of God is growing and – as those who have responded faithfully to the word – we are called to play our part.

The challenge of this parable is for us to lean towards patience and forgiveness, forebearance and love.

After all that’s how Christ himself dealt with the reality of this world:

Instead of teaching and raising disciples, he could have gathered an army and wreaked vengeance on all those who opposed the work of the Kingdom.

Arrested in the garden, he could have called down a thousand angels to save him. Instead he gave himself in silent surrender saying to God a simple, “Thy will be done.”

Enduring the suffering and shame of the cross, he simply cried out, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

In his life, death, and resurrection Jesus Christ enacted this parable in flesh and blood. Through Christ, God planted the good seed in the hearts and lives of those who had ears to hear, so that the Kingdom of God might grow and break forth with new life wherever it will.

Even if evil is at work in the world, we are not to just sit on our hands and do nothing. As those who have heard the word, we belong to the Kingdom of God. The good seed has been planted within, it is growing and it will one day be harvested.

The truth of the matter is that when God does break into our world, God usually uses us. In the midst of a crazy world:

* Prophets rise up and speak out on injustice, raising people’s awareness.
* Teachers instill a love for others in their students.
* Journalists expose corruption in politics and the church.
* Artists call us to the truth through what they sing, dance, write, paint, and act.
* Good Samaritans rise up to help and to thwart an act that was intended for evil.

As Jesus has said: Let anyone with ears to hear listen.

Will you pray with me as I close with the Prayer of St. Francis?

Lord make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, Let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is error, truth; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness, Joy.

O Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; To be understood,as to understand; To be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Today we begin a sermon series on the Parables of Jesus.

Why a sermon series on Parables? Well, one reason is because I’ve never preached a sermon series on them before, so I thought it would be kind of interesting, challenging and even fun. Call me a glutton for punishment, I guess.

More seriously though, the parables are important because they are the primary way that Jesus teaches us. So if that’s the case, they must be pretty important.

One could ask the question: Why did Jesus preach using parables?

Well for one thing:

Jesus told parables because everyone loves a story. Stories grab our attention and they are oftentimes the best way to teach things. That is why we read books to kids. It’s why we tell fairy tales and sing songs. Because stories help us learn about the world in which we live.

Jesus also told parables because he spoke to simple, common, ordinary folks who gathered to hear him teach along the hillsides and beaches of Palestine. He told his stories to peasants, farmers, day laborers, fishermen, bread bakers, and yes, even to religious leaders and teachers.

And he told them parables fully intending and expecting people to hear what he said and to grasp what he meant, even though he knew that many of those who would listen, would simply refuse to hear or be willing to understand.

The other reason Jesus told parables was to paint pictures for us in order to tell us what the Kingdom of God is like. That is why I have called this sermon series, “Kingdom Stories”

Through the use of stories told about common every day things, like seeds, wedding banquets, coins, pearls, judges, relationships between Fathers and Sons, Jesus shows and reveals to us what the Kingdom of God is like.

Now, when I say the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven, I do not mean Heaven as we think of it as some place way up there when we die, but rather the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven which has come down here to earth.

Think of the Lord’s prayer. Every Sunday we pray, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” And that is exactly the sort of thing the parables are about. They are stories about what the Kingdom of God looks like manifested here on earth.

But here’s the rub: Even though Jesus told parables fully intending and expecting people to hear what he said and to grasp what he meant, they still – more often than not – leave us scratching our heads. Or at least asking the question, “Did he really mean that?!?”

To be honest – perhaps the hardest thing about the parables is that we simply may not like what the parables have to say to us. After all, lots of people in Jesus day didn’t like what he had to say, so why should things be any different for us today?

Let me further explain:

There are a wide variety of definitions out there for the word parable. Some are long and complicated, so I won’t burden you down with any of them. Instead what I will do is leave you with this one general purpose for the parables.

The parables are primarily meant to convince and to persuade. When we read a parable, we need to always keep that in mind. We should ask: what exactly is Jesus attempting to convince and persuade us of by telling this parable?

And usually, what Jesus is trying to do is to change our minds about the way we think things are. Jesus is not interested in confirming the ways we normally think about and see the world, rather Jesus intends for his parables to upset us, to shake up the way we see things.

If anything makes the parables difficult for us, it is the fact that they are meant to challenge us to see the world differently than the way we usually tend to see it. Or said another way, if we read a parable and we don’t somehow feel challenged then perhaps we should wonder if we have totally missed the point.

Today’s parable is case in point…I will read it again:

‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’

Hmmm…no big deal there. Really. As a story it makes a lot of sense. Seeds in good soil grow and they produce fruit. Seeds planted in less than ideal soil conditions do not. That’s it. This is basic agronomy 101 here.

That’s cool. This is not rocket science. But what’s the point?

Well, Jesus goes on to offer an explanation. He explains that the seed is the Word of God and then he details the four different types of soil saying they are typical responses that people will have to that Word.

Again, that makes a lot of sense, but if you press the point long and hard enough, here is the difficult thing with this particular parable: It seems to me that it tells us that growth in the kingdom of God is totally beyond our control. We cannot manage this thing. We cannot control it.

Of course that is the way things worked with Jesus as well.

As Robert Farrar Capon says,

Jesus, as the Word, comes to his own and his own receive him not. He is despised. He is the stone the builders rejected….and to cap his whole career as the Word sown in the field, he dies, rises, and vanishes…{This} is not our idea of how a respectable divine operation ought to run.

Yes, God sows the seed – or the Word of God – everywhere, but the hard reality is that the seed simply grows where it will. Perhaps its even a miracle that the seed grows at all. As some commentators have said, this parable might more rightly be called, the parable of the miraculous harvest.

Why is this parable a challenge?

I think it’s a challenge because we are do-it-yourself sort of people. We are a self-help sort of society. If we have a problem, we gather information and data, we put plans in place, and then we sit back and we expect results.

Think about our little church. I am sure you have thought it, I’ve even thought it myself. If we could just put in the right sort of program, if we can just get the right people in place, if we could recruit a few more families, if we just do this or we just do that, well then things would be happening here.

We’d see a miraculous harvest.

But that’s not the point.

The point is that the seed goes out into the world and the results – whatever they may be – are totally beyond our control. The truth of the matter is that folks will respond to the word as they will. Jesus told us that was the way things simply would be.

Now, that doesn’t mean we just sit on our hands and do nothing, we are after all invited to partner with God to sow the seed in the world. We are called, as the Spirit leads, to faithfully and liberally share the word in word and deed in the world around us.

If there is no fruit, that doesn’t mean the seed – or the word – is not doing its job. It just simply means that the results – the growth – is not up to us. And if there is fruit, if there is a harvest, it is not really our doing either. It is a miraculous harvest no matter how you look at it.

One thing this parable should do is take the burden of our shoulders.

It frees us from sitting around in self-condemnation and despair if results don’t seem too grand.

It means we should not rack our brains trying to figure out why it is that some people come and go, why some get excited for a period of time and then fade away, and why still others find themselves too busy and do not seem to pick up their supposed share of the load.

The truth of the matter is that people will respond as they will. We have no control over that. Jesus told us as much.

There is one other direction that this parable is a challenge to us.

It issues a personal challenge to each one of us who have heard the Word. It questions us about the quality of our own response to that word. It asks us to inquire if our own response to God’s word is one that bears fruit.

The truth of the matter is that our own personal response runs across the entire spectrum of typical responses that Jesus details.

As Biblical Scholar J Ellsworth Kalas has put it:

In the course of our own life – and sometimes in the course of single given day – we manifest qualities of several kinds of soil. We are sometimes hard to the point of indifference; shallow and faddish; preoccupied with cares and worries; and also, thanks be to God, faithful and productive.

The parable invites us to consider the quality of our own response to the word. It presents a challenge to us to re-orient and re-center our lives totally and completely on the word.

That means we are to trust what we have heard and to put it into action. No matter what situation we face: we are to trust in the midst of trouble or persecution. We are to put aside the cares of the world and the lure of wealth. Our only call is to pursue life in the Kingdom of God.

In other words this parable calls for those of us who hear and receive the word to trust wholeheartedly in Jesus Christ as the Word of God, and to trust in nothing else. It challenges us to bank our whole life on it – and in this way – our own response to the Word will truly bear fruit.

Thirty, sixty, and hundredfold. A miraculous harvest. Indeed.

As Jesus has said: Let anyone with ears to hear listen.

Praise be to God now and forever, Amen.

Not a cook? Join us for FREE sampling of the entries while we play a few games of BINGO for an assortment of prizes.

Open to the community – bring a friend and enjoy good food and fellowship!
No cost to attend.   Activities start at 5:00 pm – downstairs in Fellowship Hall.

Thank you for contributing to make this Christmas holiday season brighter for families in need!

The Deacons wish to thank everyone for their heartfelt contributions to the Thanksgiving Family Adoption Program.

Day Care Spaghetti Dinner (November 12th)

The Day Care and the Church will be sponsoring a Fund Raising Spaghetti Dinner on November 12^th here at the church.  It will be from 5pm to 7pm.  We are asking church members to donate desserts and to help with setup, serving, and cleanup.

Please bring your family to enjoy spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and dessert.  The cost is $6.00 per adult – or $20 per family.  If you would like to donate a dessert or volunteer to help please sign up on the sign up sheets on the bulletin.

Funds raised will be used to purchase new software to help the daycare in the management of its day-to-day operations as well as its finances.

Mission Focus: Knox WeCare Day Care (November 13th)

The last six months have brought some substantial changes to our congregation’s primary mission - the Knox WeCare Day Care. We think its about time that everyone hears about them. So, on Sunday, November 13th, during our worship service you will have an opportunity to hear about some of the great things that have been happening with our daycare.

We hope you will come and hear about these changes and that you will learn about the impact the ministry of our daycare is having not only in the lives of families but also in our larger community.

Mission Focus: Olivet Neighborhood Mission (November 20th)

On Sunday, November 20^th, Jan Thomas, the director of Olivet Neighborhood Mission, will be sharing during the worship service about the ministry of Olivet. Our church has been a long time supporter of their work in a variety of different ways, so it will be great for us to hear about the impact the mission has been having in its community.

Mission Focus: Helping the Needy in the Community

The Deacons, with your help, will be sponsoring two families for the Thanksgiving Holiday and two families for Christmas. We will be collecting monetary and non-perishable food items for Thanksgiving until Sunday, November 20th. Monetary gifts will be used to purchase additional non-perishable foods and a gift certificate for perishable food items only.

Thank you for contributing in making this Holiday Season brighter for these families in need.

Mission Focus: Share God’s Love around the World

Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child “The Power of a Simple Gift”

Share God’s love and the joy of Christmas by packing a gift-filled shoe box for a hurting child overseas. A shoe box filled with small toys, school supplies, hygiene items, hard candy and lollipops, mints, gum (please place all candy in Ziploc bag), T-shirts, socks, ball caps, sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches and flashlights (with extra batteries) can make an eternal difference.

Bring boxes to church by Sunday, November 13th.

Sunday October 23rd

from 4:30 – 6:30 PM

FOOD & FELLOWSHIP

WITH A SOUP & SANDWICH SUPPER

FUN & FAITH

• TALENT SHOW: sign up for whatever talent you would like to share (dance, sing, play musical instrument, short play, juggle, etc…)
• HYMN SING: find your favorite hymn in the hymnals & shout out the number & we will sing it!

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE FOR THE FUN!

OPEN TO ALL