July 26, 2026 "Nothing Can Separate Us"

9th Sunday after Pentecost

1 Kings 3:5-12

Psalm 119:129-136

Romans 8:26-39

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

 grace and peace to you

from the one whose grace assures us

that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God. Amen

“Have you understood all this?”

Jesus asks his disciples

 at the end of his barrage of parables.

 “They answered,

‘yes.’”

A yes which seems a tad overconfident to me

 but then what else were they to say to their teacher?

‘Sorry Jesus, we have no idea what you’re talking about

with all these seeds and yeast, treasure, and nets full of fish…’

that might be more honest

but that might also mean that Jesus will keep teaching

 and saying even more confusing things,

 ‘yes’ seems like the safer answer.

Sometimes,

A lot of times

We choose the safer answer over the true one.

To be fair to the disciples,

they might have also thought they understood,

and perhaps they did

 to the extent that they could at that point,

 they didn’t know

what they didn’t know yet

 and therefore didn’t have any questions,

 the questions will come later

 after they have followed Jesus longer,

after they have witnessed more inbreakings

of the kingdom of God that Jesus keeps talking about,

there will certainly be questions after the crucifixion,

 more questions after the resurrection.

Sometimes the yes is true in the moment

And the questions come later

Perhaps that’s why Jesus responds to their ‘yes’

with one more parable:

“Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Jesus has just added a new treasure trove of teachings

 for the disciples to pull out

 along with the older teachings

when, faced with the questions that will come,

they return to the teachings in their quest for understanding.

 And it is no mistake that Jesus gives them parables to return to,

 in a way parables are the perfect form of teaching to return to with questions

because they have something new to offer us each time we return to them.

 Parables place two,

often contrasting, images

side by side and then ask us to compare the surprising results

 to our own lives,

giving us another way to think about important things

 like relationships or our place in the world. (See Amy-Jill Levine and Sandy Eisenberg Sasson’s note to parents and teachers in the back of The Marvelous Mustard Seed )

the beauty of parables, is the challenge to our imagination,

 the opportunity for new insight

 as life changes around us.

 This can also be the frustrating thing about parables as teaching,

 there’s no process to follow,

not out right answer

no clear set of instructions,

 they don’t tell us what to do.

Which, when we are looking for answers doesn’t seem helpful,

 ‘just tell us what to do God and we’ll do it!’

Of course, God very rarely works like that.

In seeking how to live

God has given us the principles and the free will to apply them,

 free will which means we are free to love God and neighbor without restraint,

but which also leaves us free to ignore God and neighbor

 and live only for ourselves

no matter how many people it hurts along the way.

Now most of us are a mix of the two,

we want to love God and neighbor

 and we try

but we also want to love ourselves

and we don’t always (pretty rarely) get the balance right,

we go along thinking we understand

and then we come across a situation

that shows us how little we understand

and where do we go from there?

Solomon asks God for wisdom.

 He has just been made king following in the footsteps of his father David,

 an honor combined with great power yes,

but also a great responsibility

and Solomon doesn’t feel up to the task

 “I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.” he protests to God,

 and when presented with the opportunity to ask God for anything

proceeds to ask God for wisdom

 “Give your servant, therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this great people of yours?”

 and this pleases God

because it is a request in service of God’s people

 rather than just Solomon

 who God realizes could have asked for wealth,

 or life, or any other self-serving thing.

And God gives Solomon the wisdom he asks for,

now does Solomon always apply that wisdom?

 No,

in the end following his own desires leads him away from God

and there are consequences

and we might wonder ‘if one gifted with the very wisdom of God

can’t make all the right choices,

is there any hope for us?’

on our own?

No.

But we are not on our own

 in baptism we were joined to Christ,

 through Christ’s death and resurrection we were fused to God’s love

and that means we are never alone,

 that God is there to help us,

as Paul says in our reading from Romans “The Spirit helps us in our weakness…”

the spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know what to ask for,

God searches our minds and hearts,

and while we still have free will to mess things up,

 and we do and will,

 God promises to find a way to work through and with that mess

 for God’s good purpose 

that’s what Paul means when he says

 “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.”

it’s not that everything happens for a reason

 or that if we truly love God our lives are supposed to be all good

 and if they’re not then we must not love God,

 no

 it means that God will take the manure we make out of things

 and use it to fertilize the beautiful rose of God’s purpose

And even knowing this,

sometimes we still wonder,

 how could God love us?

 Surely that is enough for God to say

 ‘ugh, you know what I give up they’re hopeless’

which is why God gave us the gift of baptism,

 the moment in time we can point to

 when real wet water poured over our heads

 as the word of God vibrated the air with the promise

 that as Cora was this morning,

we were sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.

And when God says forever,

 God means forever,

 so then in the words of Paul again,

we too can be convinced “that  neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 not our mistakes,

not our self-centeredness,

 not our lack of understanding,

not even our over confident yes’s

can separate us from God in Christ,

 a true gift,

a priceless treasure,

 one which we got to bring out this morning,

 and as we heard the new promises for Cora,

 we were reminded of the old promise for ourselves:

 that we are children of God and so nothing,

nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen