Tuesday, FEBRUARY 7, 2022

Pastor Bruce Kischnick, Grace Lutheran Church, New Albany, IN

“A Carrot or a Tomato?”

READING: Matthew 13:3-9 – Then he told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.”

The other day I finally got around to cleaning up my garden. I still had tomato vines, sunflower stalks, and other odds and ends in it that made the whole thing look rather neglected and forlorn. Between a busy fall schedule and some back trouble, I had never gotten around to cleaning up last year’s remains. I am already looking forward to the new spring season and planting once again. Must be the old farmer in me, but I love to watch things green up and grow.

Two common plants one finds growing in most vegetable gardens are carrots and tomatoes. These two have something interesting in common: both of them were once very different and considered poisonous to human beings. Carrots long ago were purple in color, terribly bitter, and originally cultivated only for their aromatic tops and seeds. Only as people began to cross-pollinate and hybridize, did their color change to orange and they developed enough sugars to become sweet enough to eat.

Tomatoes were native to the Americas, and when explorers brought them back to places like Spain, Portugal, and Italy, they were cultivated only as ornamental plants. Their fruits were tiny, extremely sour, and unappetizing. Word was that they were poisonous and good only to look at. Again, when people began to cross-pollinate and hybridize them, the fruits became larger, sweeter, and made their way into a myriad of food items from soup to juice to sauces, pastes, sun-dried, and fresh.

Now while they have these origins in common, they are vastly different plants. Carrots are root crops, so-called because beyond the frilly green tops, the carrot consists of a tap root that gives it tremendous purchase on the soil. It goes down four, six, even twelve inches, and it often takes a tool to get the really long ones out of the ground. They fear no wind or storm because they have gone deep into the soil. Even drought finds carrots thriving because they reach deep for moisture other plants can’t reach.

Tomatoes on the other hand have no tap root. They have what is called a “dendritic” root system. Like an upside down tree, the root system of the tomato plant spreads out just below the surface of the ground. The whole system is often no deeper than four or five inches. When the stem and leafing branches grow up and out, the plant can actually become unstable. It gets top heavy, especially once the fruits come on and get large. That’s why tomatoes have to be grown in “cages”. The wire structure surrounds the upper part of the plant and is anchored in the ground with 3 or 4 legs. Without a cage, a strong wind or heavy rain will cause the whole plant to tip over, even pulling the root ball out of the soil altogether. And when drought strikes, tomatoes must be watered or they will wither before your eyes.

In Jesus’ parable of “The Sower” he speaks of the plants that spring up on rocky ground where the soil is shallow. Their roots never get a good purchase on the soil. When it gets dry and the sun stays high in the sky, they wither and die because they cannot reach moisture. Like the tomatoes, these plants have no tap root that goes down deep.

Jesus explains later in the chapter that these plants represent those who take joy in the Gospel when first they hear it. They are quick to join a church. They come regularly to church. But they never go deeper. They haven’t time or interest in Bible study. They allow any little thing to irritate them. They begin to find reasons to miss worship. They drift away a little at a time because their faith never put down a tap root. They never went any deeper into Jesus – what he said, what he did, what he asks. When some problem or trouble comes along; when some new church becomes popular or some new attraction appears in their lives, off they go. Faith and faithfulness wither and fall, just like those tomatoes.

Now, you and I, we want to be carrots! Good old solid, squat carrots – of the orange and edible variety, of course. We want to drive that root DEEP. We want to read, study, and digest the Word for all that it’s worth. We want to be prepared for the storms, the droughts, and the occasional worm! We want to drink deep of God’s goodness and his Spirit. Tomatoes are showy and get better press, but the carrots stay the course, rooted in Christ and filled with his goodness. Amen.

PRAYER:

ANNOUNCEMENT(S):

1. If you are a person “of a certain age”, let me invite you to our SENIORS MARDI GRAS PARTY this Thursday, February 9, noonish, in the Fireside Room. Bring a dish to pass. The main course will be pulled pork BBQ. Everything else, including a “King Cake” will be provided. Some games, some amusements, and some prizes will be in the offing. Call Karen and tell her to put your name on the sign up list and join us. And, by the way, if you have a “White Elephant” that you’ve been wanting to get rid of couldn’t bring yourself to throw out, put a bow on it and give it away at the party!

2. A heads-up: ASH WEDNESDAY falls on February 22. We’ll have church that evening at 7:00 with the Imposition of Ashes and Holy Communion. Mark your calendars!

Youtube Video: https://youtu.be/ivhhGbxuXz4

PRINTABLE PDF: WDFeb7.PDF

pastork@glcna.com — (502) 797-7407

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WEEKLY DEVOTION FEBRUARY 6

Monday, FEBRUARY 6, 2022

Pastor Matthew Woods from Grace Lutheran Church in New Albany, Indiana

“Following the Recipe”

As you watch this today our church will have had its Chili Cookoff. However, full disclosure, I am filming this the day before the event. Along those lines I want to talk about recipes.

As you have probably heard, each year I make my veggie chili for the cookoff. I have never intended it to win. I started bringing it because one of our members was a vegan but couldn’t eat any chili because they all had meat in them. So I started making it for her in hopes that she would at least have one chili to eat. I’ve been bringing every year since.

The recipe is simple. A red pepper, yellow pepper, green pepper, orange pepper all get diced up along with an onion and then put into a bowl. Then I pour into a crockpot, a can of strained chick peas, a can of corn, a can of whole tomatoes that I chop up in the crockpot, kidney beans, and mix those altogether. Then I mix up a sauce made of Ketchup, chili powder, honey, cayenne pepper, and some garlic and mix that together in a separate bowl. Once everything is ready, I pour in the bowl of peppers and onions and pour in the special sauce. I let it cook on high for about 5 hours and then let it mellow in the frig for a day before bringing it in to church.

I’m a meat eater but I like this particular chili. It’s got so many veggies in it that it remains pretty thick and hearty. For those who want it, a little cheese can be added to the bowl and viola…mmm good!

So, what happens if I leave out the chili powder? Or if I neglect to put in the garlic or the onion? Chances are, it will not taste the same. It will not be as intended and therefore, anyone who tried it would not be able to enjoy what is intended by the recipe. Yet, by following it I am able to feed a lot of people. It often goes fast because PK has unintentionally given it so much advertising in his envy (Wink) that people go looking for it now.

God is good at recipes too. Look what He does with creation. Some daylight, millions of stars seasoning the skies, plants, animals, and of course, humanity. Imagine if He left something out. What kind of place would it be if he didn’t create dogs for example, or cats? Or what if He left off the moon, how would the tides know how to behave?

The human being is a brilliant recipe of skin, bones, brains, cells, RNA, DNA helixes, complicated and amazing. Some of us don’t have to image if God left out something like kidneys? But what if he left off something as simple as an ability to smile? Or smell or hear? Usually when such things are absent a person learns to adapt in amazing ways—something else a human being does well. As Psalm 139 says, we are beautifully and wonderfully made.

I would also argue that the Law of God is a recipe as well…a recipe of righteousness. Remember what Jesus says in yesterday’s Gospel from Matthew 5? Let’s remind ourselves real quick.

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

First, Jesus says the Law is meant as a whole without leaving out “the smallest letter or the least stroke of the pen” as if there is a least. As anyone would know with a recipe its often the little dashes of spices and things that make it all work. Keeping this in mind Loving the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength in the first commandment is just as important as not committing adultery, or murdering anyone, or bearing a false witness. The Law is meant as something like a recipe where all the ingredients matter if we want to get the intended final product, namely righteousness. It’s not really up to us to leave out the 8th commandment or the tenth. If we do then we really do not have righteousness at all. The righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law was is “least” in the kingdom…by Jesus’ estimation will certainly not enter the Kingdom of heaven.

But notice the other word that Jesus uses in keeping the Law. Verse says, “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Poesis the word for “practices” is an interesting Greek word. Literally it means to bring something to be that wasn’t there before. The Law is not something we create but something that is followed. Like creating a chili it is something that is learned and taught. The first, time I made my veggie chili I had to lean on the recipe heavily, reading every detail. After years of practicing the making of the chili I can do just about all of it by heart. It’s like this with everything; golf, learning to back up a trailer, and even learning to tie one’s shoes—which Kaden will do soon enough. The Law of God is learned. We don’t perfect it, but practice the Law so that it becomes more and more familiar to us until more and more of it becomes natural to us. I’ve always said we get good at what we practice. A talent that wasn’t there before comes to be much in the same way we learn how to tell the truth. We can get pretty good at telling the truth in love and with tact for example or we can get good at yelling and losing our temper. One way or the other we get good at what we practice more.

The Lord’s recipe for the Law is spelled out throughout the chapters of Matt 5-7. And it concludes with the famous Parable of the Wise and Foolish builders in Matt 7:24-27 where Jesus emphasizes the practice of His teachings and the results of following those teachings.

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” So putting into practice the teachings of Jesus draws us closer to Jesus while not practicing His teachings leaves one far from Jesus, which Jesus calls ‘foolish’.

The most important recipe that Jesus follows is for our salvation. From Genesis 3 on we can trace a recipe that had been painstakingly developed through Israel, taught by the Prophets, and finally fulfilled in Jesus. He describes Himself as fulfilling the Law not destroying it. That’s right! The Virgin Birth. His Circumcision. His descendance from Abraham, Judah and David. Overcoming Temptation in the wilderness for 40 days. Raising Lazarus. Even His sermon on the Mount. The betrayer. The denier. The nails. The scourge. Breathing His last and giving up His spirit. And most importantly, rising from the Tomb.

All to include us in His recipe of salvation. It all blends together perfectly for an eternal feast of the wedding of the Lamb with His bride, the church. From a believer’s point of view this is the true prize-winning recipe.

Pastor Matthew Woods

John 3:30

PRINTABLE PDF: WDFeb6.PDF

Youtube Video: https://youtu.be/8oayMLREwQg

matt.woods@glcna.com — (502) 523-9327

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Children’s Ministry Contact Information
Email: sabrina.haug@glcna.com
Phone/Text: 502-386-6371
Facebook: Grace Lutheran Children’s Ministry
Web: www.glcna.org – click Children’s Ministry in right-side Index