Allowing stuff to grow up around your life and if not tended too, stuff will choke out the things God is trying to do in your life.

Sunday’s Gospel the parable of the “Mustard Seed” pertains to our faith in Christ.

This short and to the point parable by Jesus to the crowd that had been following Him, He says, “the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.” So what is Jesus telling us about faith?

First, Jesus meant that faith as it concerns Him was based on the reality of His deity, based upon the truth of His promises, and His record of being faithful to His people….

These are uncertain times. There is so much that we don’t know about the virus that has caused the pandemic. We don’t know the full health impact on individuals, communities, and our health system, and we don’t know the full financial and economic impact either. We have hopes that the recent and continuing protests will finally mean that some action will be taken to address police brutality and to enact antiracist policies and structures in our country — but we don’t know yet what that may look like. And the election season is beginning to heat up. We can work to get our favorite candidates elected, but we have no idea yet what changes to our political landscape November will bring.

With every day that passes, it seems more clear that we don’t know much about what lies ahead! For those of us who like to be in control, or at least like to think that we are in control (!), these are very trying, frustrating, and even scary times. But perhaps there is a spiritual lesson we can learn now, one that is harder to learn when things are going well for us. And that is that even when things are good, we are not really in control of much in our lives! Especially in our complicated world, we are dependent on each other and especially on God….

At the risk of treading on our Director of Music Tim Pyper’s territory, I thought I’d extend the feeling of Trinity Sunday (which we celebrated this past Sunday), by inviting us all to spend a little time with the wonderful hymn “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” (or “I Bind Unto Myself Today”). It is based on a poem said to have been written by St. Patrick, and it describes sources of strength we can prayerfully draw on for support, including two sources I preached about on Sunday: the power of the Trinity as the three-in-one God united in love and the presence of Christ who is always with us.