July 20, 2008
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Pastor Paul Tidemann

DOING AWAY WITH FENCES

Texts: Isaiah 44:6-8; Romans 8:12-24, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Greetings and wishes for God’s blessing to all of you on this special 125th Anniversary day of celebration and remembering of the past, the present and the future.

To save some time in later conversation for those who remember me, since people will ask “what have you been doing with yourself in retirement” – let me give you some one-liners. I’ve been enjoying life with Janet, my spouse, and as you know she had deep brain stimulation surgery for Parkinsons nine months ago which was very successful - no tremors and all that. She sends greetings, but can’t be here because she was asked to preside at the service at Our Saviour’s today since their senior pastor, Hans Lee, has taken another call. She continues there as visitation pastor. I’m up to my ears in genealogy fun on all sides of the family - Tidemann, Hayek, Hermann, Jensen, Ryan, McMillan and others. I’m deeply involved in the St. Paul Interfaith Network. I am also really involved with the efforts dealing with human sexuality and the hope to get policy change in the ELCA. I sing in the choir and do other things at Gloria Dei Lutheran in St. Paul. I continue my playing and administration work of the Northeast Orchestra. I continue coordination of the Guyana Mission Network. And I go to lots of Twins games! Otherwise, I just sit around and read! Janet would say I’m not retired!

125 years is a great milestone. Not many people live that long. A woman considered having lived the longest was a French woman named Jeanne Calment who died in 1997 at age 122. I always like to put things in context. Christianity, of course, has been around for about 1980 years. Lutherans might be traced back about 480 years. The oldest Lutheran church in North America started out as Ebenezer Lutheran in Albany, New York area in 1649. The oldest existing Lutheran church body in the western hemisphere is, believe it or not, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana that started in 1743.

When we have celebrations like this one today for St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church we have to be careful lest we get too proud of ourselves. There is much to be proud of at St. Paul-Ref, to be sure, not the least of which is this congregation’s welcoming spirit toward persons of color and sexual minority persons. I say that in spite of the opinion expressed in the Star Tribune newspaper by a certain columnist who castigated the GLBT community for having a Pride festival.

The reason that I offer a word of caution about being too proud has to do with the Gospel text for today in which Jesus speaks in a parable about seeds and soil. “The reign of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in the 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.”

Later on in the text Jesus, in the words of Matthew, seeks to interpret this parable. The interpretation is in the form of an allegory. An allegory is something that is designed to disclose a hidden meaning and each significant part of the original story is seen to stand for something else. Accordingly, the field is the whole wide world. The sower is the Son of the People, the special Son of God. The good seed are those who see themselves as within the reign of God. The weeds are those who are separated from the reign of God and their seeds were sewn by that which is evil in this world.

At the heart of this Word of God from Jesus is a very strong message to the church and to the world. Do not build fences around anything in the world or in the Christian community in order to make what you see to be your part of it more pure and holy. If there are things in the world, and in the church, which seem to be evil, do not be too quick to judge. God will be the one who will make the final judgment.

When it comes to the church, especially when we are celebrating anniversary times, we need to be careful lest we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. There is a tendency in any community, including the church, to think: “aren’t we wonderful that we are so nice!” It’s a bit like the mythology that suggests that Minnesotans are so nice, when we know that there are things here in Minnesota that badly need correction.

We have a tendency in the church to think that we hold all the truth in this world. In the work which I am involved in in the St. Paul Interfaith Network, which is led by our mutual friend, Pastor Tom Duke, we bring together Muslim, Jewish, Baha’i, and Christian people, and others if we can. We are planning a series of Monday evening conversations this Fall under the theme: “My Truth and Your Truth: Openness and Absolutes in our Religious Traditions.” We often wrestle with the question of how we can bring people together to talk about what it true and what is not, what is truly right and what is truly wrong, if the person or people we want to talk with are convinced that only they are right. I encourage you to come to this series that begins Monday, October 27.

Having said all that, there is certainly good reason for St. Paul-Reformation to celebrate years of trying to knock down fences that divide and injure people. It began with the boundaries of language - shall we speak German, or Swedish or English and are the Swedes evil when they want to hang on to their language and culture in a new world. It is interesting that for a time in this congregation’s history, the Germans gave up on the Swedes and went their own way - speaking English. But many years later, St. Paul Lutheran, which had been Swedish, and Reformation Lutheran, which had been German, decided this was foolishness to be four blocks apart in the same community and so, in 1977, they consolidated as St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church under the wonderful leadership of Pastor Roger Mackey, who is here today, Pastor Richard Landeen and some really superb lay leaders like Bill Heiple, and the late Herb Stampley and many others.

I puzzle a good deal over what to make of that which seems to be evil in the world. When I look at large movements of people, like movements which seem racist, movements which want to get rid of immigrants, movements which are condemning of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, movements which could care less about the poor and all of that, I get very discouraged with evil.

Yet, when I meet individual people, even those who may be associated with those movements, I do not always see evil. I have to ask myself what it is in their lives that has brought them to the place they are. I certainly need to follow the Word of God in the parable of Jesus which says that we need to live together, grain and weeds, and let God sort it all out one day.

The question is, when is that “one day?” Do we have to wait until the whole earth is consumed by environmental degradation and humankind is dead and gone before we will know how God sorts out this mess?

Here is where we get into the question of the judgment day and I have come to the conclusion that God’s judgment is always in process. I think that we bring judgment on ourselves by what we do or what we fail to do. We cannot simply sit by and say that it is all right for racist action and words to continue without challenge. We cannot simply sit by and say that it is all right to say that the poor need to take care of themselves. We cannot simply sit by and say that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are on their own in the face of the terrible judgments and policies that exist both in church and society.

I think that we have to come to the place that we say to each other and to others in this world that we do not make any eternal judgment about you, but when I see that which seems clearly evil, unloving, uncaring and unjust in the world I must do what I can to make things change.

Furthermore, you and I need to ask ourselves where it is that we have just forgotten to get off the dime and be involved in God’s love, power and justice. As I listen to younger people around me I see less and less of them involved in the church or any organized religion, and some who even give up on anything organized in this world because much of what they see is hypocritical. They, too, may be being too judgmental. But I want to listen to their voices and have them listen to mine, older and wizened though I be.

The people of St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church have been sowing seed for a long time, for 125 years as a matter of fact. I know that you are all in the process of figuring out what the next steps will be in the mission and ministry of this congregation. You have had wonderful interim leaders in Pastors Mueller and Andersen, you have given thanks for the ministry of Pastor Lorenzen, and you continue to rely on the faithful ministry of Pastor Hill. Others of you have picked up the mantle of leadership, while others have set that mantle down for a time. We can be grateful for all of you. God’s blessing lies in each of your hearts.

I think what Jesus’ parable is telling us all is to be gentle with one another, to be determined not to let evil prosper in the church or in society, to be forgiving of others - whoever they may be, to listen carefully to people who seem to be across the fence from us, to be watchful lest we think too highly of ourselves, and yet let us celebrate what seems to be good and just, loving and caring in our own lives, in the church and in the whole wide world. AMEN.

Paul A. Tidemann, Pastor (retired)