“The Realm of God is Like This” Part 10

The Realm of God is… Within Reach Wildwood Mennonite Church // August 23, 2020

Worship Leader: Christine E // Music Leader: Audrey MB // Sermon: Joe H

Welcome to Wildwood...

...or rather, thanks for welcoming us into wherever you are in this at-home worship format.

This is not where we thought we'd be this summer! We are grateful for the familiar patterns

and relationships that we have been able to resume, yet we are still grieving the loss of those

that have changed and we are still feeling our way through the murkiness of whatever it is that

is emerging.

As people of faith, we trust that God is present in all of those spaces: in the familiar, in the

grieving, in the unknown. And we are grateful that you have joined us in this place, a reminder

that we never walk alone. Welcome.

Welcome to the gathering of the Wildwood Mennonite congregation this morning.

We are glad that you have joined us for worship and a time of being together as a community

and family of faith. You are invited to join in, participate as you can, and feel the hope and

assurance that is ours to experience through the presence of Christ.

Music For Meditation // Piano recording by Audrey MB

Call to Worship

As followers of Christ, we are called to bring

A hopeful understanding of our world

Declaring that God called the created universe “good.”

Within your created world

Now, constantly changing

We continue to declare your faithfulness as we adapt.

We are called to bring hope in God

With us wherever we go

Declaring that God makes all things new again.

As we respond to the call of hope

And commandment to love one another

Let us joyfully join in our love of God

To worship and give thanks.

Come. Come, let us worship.

Prayer:

Gracious and loving God, as we wrestle with uncertainty, fear, and grief, we invite your gifts of

assurance, peace and calm as we gather for worship today.

Your kingdom is one of truth, justice, and love. May we experience your kingdom come today.

Amen

Peace Candle // Adapted from Prayer for the Future, Carol Penner, www.leadinginworship.com

All-seeing God,

hear our prayer for the future that we will not see.

For all the children of our children's grandchildren,

and all the others born when this century

is a long ago memory.

Let their feet touch this good earth,

let it still be good, growing green as it always grows.

Let their hands and hearts be reaching to connect,

not grasping, not fighting.

We want to pray that we will be beyond all that, both now and into the future,

that things will be normal, be back to the way we think it should be.

Lord, this prayer may not be the right prayer for our time.

Instead, we pray for what we have survived, are surviving, are experiencing.

The upheavals of the world we cannot imagine or name,

the suffering that is beyond speaking.

Conflict, death, destruction. Grief, sorrow and fear.

The loss of routine, the loss of jobs, loss of relationships,

changes to what we trust, fear of what is coming next.

We pray that we could still be good,

still loving in the face of hatred and separation,

still hoping in the face of despair and uncertainty.

We pray that we would be skilled at beginning again

even when it seems like the end of everything.

For you are with us.

Time can't stop you from loving us.

Your ever-present ear takes this tiny message,

and transports it forward through the years.

My dear future friends: Believe. Love. Cherish.

Look up at the distant stars and say prayers for the future.

We pray together, that hope will arrive in time.

Offering Prayer

We are invited to respond to God’s call to share our abundance at this offering time. We share

through our gifts of time, treasure and wisdom, generation to generation.

Offering gifts can continue to be directed to the Wildwood office, via e-transfer, cheque, and

direct deposit. If you have questions, please contact Sarah at the office.

Prayer:

Lord, let our congregation be a witness to you:

immersed in scripture,

constant in prayer,

joyful in worship,

generous in giving.

A loving, supportive community

reaching out to those in need.

Accept these gifts we offer, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Song // We Sing to You, O God // Sing the Journey #1

Children’s Story // Click here for video storytime with Kara!

Today’s story is A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope by Michael Foreman.

Scripture // Luke 21:29-33 // The Inclusive Bible translation

And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, or any other tree. You see when they’re

budding and know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things

happening, know that the reign of God is near. The truth is, this generation will not pass

away until all this takes place. The heavens and the earth will pass away, but my words

will not pass away.

Sermon //”...Like a Fig Tree” // Joe Heikman

(If you’d rather watch than read, click here for the full video version on youtube)

And Jesus told them a parable:

“Look at the fig tree, or any other tree. You see when they’re budding and know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things happening, know that the reign of God is near.” When you see all these things happening, know that the reign of God is near. What things, you ask? Well, you can expect to hear of wars and political instability. Upheaval is constant in a world that is indeed flat, hot and crowded. There will be economic warfare, information technology warfare, political and social warfare across racial, class, and cultural divides. And yes, this will lead to physical confrontations and military violence. “Nation will rise against nation”... and nations will also be divided by internal struggles. And empire will rise against empire--corporate empires, media empires, neo-colonial empires--in a struggle for global dominance. Even outer space will become a battlefront. But when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads--because your redemption is near at hand. Take care not to be misled, for many will try to mislead you. Information wars, fake news, conspiracy theories, a struggle for Truth. Experts constantly debating other experts, both sides claiming to have the facts. Billion-dollar media companies competing for clicks and advertising with ever-explosive headlines. Algorithms and influencers shaping what and how we see current events. Religious traditions making exclusive claims of truth, and spiritual-but-not religious thought leaders offering visions so broad as to be meaningless. There will be turmoil in the natural world: earthquakes, pandemics and famines ravaging the planet. Superstorms, wildfires and 100-year floods will be commonplace. Mass extinctions, deteriorating air quality, disease, vanishing natural habitats. Crisis will blend with crisis--signs that the planet is desperately broken.

But when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads--because your redemption is near at hand. Oh, don’t think you will escape this, that it’s happening somewhere far from here. This turmoil is going to affect you, personally. Your easy answers and quick dismissals, those aren’t going to save you. Your financial stockpiles will be taken. Your institutions will be broken. The wrong party will be elected. Leaders that you once trusted will sell you out. You will cry for justice, but the systems of justice will be too corrupted to notice. But when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads--because your redemption is near at hand. Like I said, this is going to be personal. Your friendships will be divided. Your families aren’t going to make it. Even some of those closest to you will betray you. Stand on the truth of your convictions, but it’s going to cost you. You’ll be misunderstood and disrespected, even hated, if you are willing to speak out. But when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads--because your redemption is near at hand. Your country may fall. Your allies will abandon you. You’ll be forced to join the throngs of refugees. Leave the cities, head for the hills, that’s how bad it’s going to get. Foreign invasion? Forced migration? Economic collapse? Nuclear fallout? Whatever your worst-case scenario might be, it’s all on the table. But when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads--because your redemption is near at hand. The signs are everywhere. The contaminated haze that fills the skies in the

day; the planes and satellites and light pollution that obscure the stars at night. The earth warms and dries out; the seas rise and rage. Everything we count on will be shaken. But when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads--because your redemption is near at hand. And then Jesus told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, or any other tree. You see when they’re budding and know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things happening, know that the reign of God is near. The truth is, this generation will not pass away until all this takes place. The heavens and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Most of us are familiar with understanding biblical prophecy as having a linear timeline. We read the words of the prophet from the past, and imagine them to be about some future event.

Perhaps we think of prophecy as a prediction of what will come, or perhaps as a warning of what tragedy might come if we don’t change our path. Or, the ones I like the best, as drawing our imaginations to the beautiful end of the story, of what is possible when God’s reign is fully realized. There are lots of different ways to interpret the prophecies of the Bible, but most of them are based in that familiar past-present-future progressive linear framework. And that’s how the prophecy of Jesus in Luke 21 begins as well. Jesus’ students come to him with a question: “when will these things be?” The disciples were referring to the start of Jesus’ reign as Messiah, and they were asking because they thought that surely it would have happened by now.

But no, even in the middle of Holy Week, after the Triumphal Entry parade… the Romans continued to dominate, the priests continued to control access to God in the Temple, and Jesus continued to speak of his reign in the future tense. And so, they asked, “tell us when will these things be??” Jesus answered them with a prophecy, that seemed to be pointing to a specific time, a timeline that would have felt very familiar and urgent and immediate. I think they would have heard it in a similar way as I hope you heard my modern

paraphrase earlier. A mixture of current events and bleak projections of how things might go in the very near future. I suspect they would have understood Jesus to be talking about wars and disasters that had already begun, and promising that his reign would follow soon after. (And that is how this passage is interpreted most often.)

But then Jesus throws in this parable about the fig tree: And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, or any other tree. You see when they’re budding and know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things happening, know that the reign of God is near. The truth is, this generation will not pass away until all this takes place. Now, you don’t need a botany degree to know that a fig tree, or any other tree, buds more than once. Budding is an annual event for trees; or in mild climates, fig trees bud and produce fruit several times a year. As Jesus suggests, the life of a tree is a seasonal thing. Not a linear timeline as much as a cycle of growth, each season building on what comes before, each season a mixture of giving up the old way and taking on the new way, each season a combination of life and death. Even the death of the tree is a part of the process that leads to new life. And so I wonder if that’s what Jesus means with this prophecy--not that these are one-time events, specific wars and earthquakes and signs leading to a specific endpoint, but that these are events that happen all the time, a repeating pattern, a seasonal reality. In that perspective, that next line takes on a different tone:

‘In the same way, whenever you see all these things happening, anytime you see these things, know that the reign of God is near” [emphasis added and expanded.] After all, “the truth is, this generation will not pass away until all this takes place.” That line has given bible scholars fits, because obviously the generation of the people Jesus was speaking to has all been dead for quite some time, and we still have not reached the end of the timeline. If this is a linear prophecy, then apparently something went wrong with the timing.

But if Jesus is referring to a repeating cycle, the constant patterns of disaster and recovery and destruction and redemption, this makes sense that this generation is going to see all these things in their lifetime--because every generation sees all of these things. Nation rising against nation? A tale as old as time.

Natural disasters? Forced migration? Religious and tribal conflicts? Check, check, and check. Global pandemics? Yeah, that too. As one pop music prophet puts it, “We didn't start the fire // It was always burning // Since the world's been turning…”” The reality Jesus is pointing to is not that hard times are coming in the future, but that they are always here. Every season has its hard times. And, just as reliably, “when you see all these things happening, know that the reign of God is near.” Or as he put it earlier in the prophecy, “when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads--because your redemption is near at hand.” Near at hand. Within reach. Close enough to grasp. The Greek word comes from the root meaning “to squeeze or throttle.” Your redemption is so close you can get a hold on it and refuse to let it go. Where is God, even when it feels like the world is on fire? Every time the world is on fire?

Near at hand. How is that possible? From the linear timeline framework, it seems like the promise is that things are going to go from bad to worse, and then, miraculously, at the last minute, God shows up and turns the tables and rights all the wrongs. Which sounds great, and I’m not knocking that hope. But I understand the skepticism from folks to whom that sounds like wishful thinking. But from the seasonal, fig tree perspective, it’s entirely natural that hope is born out of a breakdown, that a season of new life flows out of a season of desolation, that the seeds of the new way of being come directly out of the death of the old way. Sometimes, a prophecy is not so much a supernatural prediction as an expression of hope, an expression of hope in the very natural, very observable and dependable seasons of life.

Once again, this parable of Jesus has been rather abstract, so I want to close with a time of guided meditation giving you the opportunity to bring it a little closer to where you are, hopefully close enough for you to grasp. I’m going to put images of trees on the screen, and as I give some instructions you can either watch the images or if you’d like, you can close your eyes and let your imagination go where it will. This is going to be about five minutes of meditation, so go ahead and get your body into a comfortable position. As you relax, pay attention to the physical sensations of your body, your feet on the ground, your weight pressing into your seat, your torso rising and falling as your breath moves in and out.

Already you can feel the rhythm of life that I’ve been talking about within you... how close each new breath follows after the old... in each breath there is something lost and something gained. Your physical body lives in this tension, of time moving forward with each moment, but also the repetition, the pattern, the cycle of that which is used up making way for that which is fresh and new.

Jesus invited us to consider the fig tree, or any tree. What image comes to mind when you hear that invitation? Is your tree something ancient and grand? New and vibrant? An older tree, perhaps, bent and scarred?

What season are you picturing for your tree? The new buds of spring? The growth of summer? The bounty and change of autumn? The stark beauty of winter? Take a moment to sit with that image of your tree. Why do you think you’re picturing that particular season for your tree? Is there a connection to some season of life that you currently find yourself in? Maybe there is, or maybe not… or maybe asking that question has caused your image to shift to a new season more in line with some of your current experiences.

Consider the fullness of the season that you’re thinking about, however abstract or specific that might be. What are the gifts of this season? What are the hardships? Is there a particular weight that this season brings? Is there beauty in this season? Uncertainty? Potential? Now, as you hold in your mind this image of your tree in its season, what is one thing that you would hope for in this season? What would it look like for this tree to bear fruit? In the language of Jesus, what would it mean for the reign of God to be born anew in this season? As you hold onto that hope, consider what is at the root of it. Underneath the specifics, what is it that you are hoping for--a sense of relief from fear? An affirmation of your purpose? A feeling of connection, or peace, or joy?

Now, look closely again at your tree in its season, and ask yourself what sign of hope you already see there, what hint is present even now in this season of what might be coming in the next. Is there something already in the works that is adjacent to what you are hoping

for, something that is already close enough to grasp, some expression of hope that you can hold on to? And finally, with that hope in sight, I wonder what it might mean for you to respond to Jesus’ call to his students, to “stand up straight and raise your head,” to take a step forward in faith toward whatever it is that you’re hoping for. That is also part of the rhythm of life in the natural world, that the movement towards the new season begins early, long before the former season has run its course. Even trees “walk by faith, not by sight.”

Hold that image of your tree moving into a new season in your mind for a little longer, and then come on back to join me in a closing prayer: Creator God, Ancient One who set the world in motion and brings forth each season in its turn, we are grateful for the gift of hope. We’re grateful for the sustenance that you give that brings us through each season, that holds us even through the pain, the suffering, the uncertainty, the unknown. Jesus, we’re grateful for your teaching, for the promise that you offer of what is coming, what is already near, what is grounded in the ancient truth of the past. Give us wisdom to hear your words speaking to us today. Give us the strength to stand up straight. Give us the courage to raise our heads. Give us the wisdom to understand what that means for us, and give us the rest and peace that comes as we trust in your redemption. Creator God, we hear that promise that you are near at hand. Whether we can see it or not. This is our hope. Keep us grounded, take root within us, blossom in us, today and tomorrow. Amen.

Song of Response // God of the Bible // Sing the Journey #27

Sharing Time // "Hey Wildwood..." online sharing

Not hearing from one another in person through the Sharing Time is a significant loss for many

of us. It’s not the same, but one way to express your grief, anxiety, prayer requests and

gratitude is through the “Hey Wildwood” link above. If you’re able, join us for our Sunday

Morning Zoom gatherings, or check your email for the sharing items from last Sunday. Or

maybe now would be a good time to pause your reading to call someone from church or

elsewhere that you haven’t heard from this week.

Congregational Prayer

God, thank you for the dawn that comes every morning,

even after our darkest nights.

God, thank you for the hope that comes with the birth of each new day,

Even after difficult days, anxious days, long days.

We give you thanks for summer sun, vacations and refreshing breezes

For birds that sing the early morning song

and fish that bite the hook from the swaying rock of the canoe.

For growing gardens and flourishing fields

And for the privilege of sharing our abundance.

We give you thanks for laughter and sand, for hellos and good-byes,

Even when its presentation is different from what we are used to.

We give thanks for new life and for lives well lived.

For helpers and professionals that guide us through our questions.

For every sign of hope, we give you thanks!

We give you thanks for your son Jesus Christ.

Help us to grasp resurrection; to understand its power,

to see its force at work in our world,

thawing any anger within us, melting our hearts,

changing our human landscape slowly, forcefully.

We pray your hand would intervene in the war-torn regions and unsafe relationships

that peace could be planted, that new life could come.

Jesus, we might not always recognize you,

but thank you that you walk with us in both the big upheavals of our time,

and in the everyday events too.

Thank you that you are present with all the parents and educators

as they make decisions about the upcoming school year.

Thank you for learning and growing opportunities however they are presented.

Forgive us for the times we’ve failed to show love and compassion,

for the ways we’ve hardened our hearts

even to those we love the most.

Give us grace to apologize, and wisdom to make things right.

Thank you for the times we catch sight of your kingdom come,

in the person of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns in us forever.

Amen

Song // Move in Our Midst // Hymnal Worship Book #418

Benediction

Behold, you create all things new. Heaven and earth. Hope and a budding future. Grant us the

courage, the resilience, and the strength to declare your faithfulness, now and forevermore.

Amen.