Matthew 13:1-23
On the way home from work yesterday I saw an apple tree with limbs raised to the sky, laden with red apples amongst lush leaves, clearly the juicier from all the rains of the last week! Similarly, the day before I had attended the interment of an 87 year-old friend and former teaching colleague. The crowd of 100 or so who stood in the drenching weather to pray her into her last resting place, were testimony to her fruitful life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity. 
 
Both my friend and the apple tree are witness to the seed of the Word of God finding its way into good soil and growing up, season by season, year by year into the fruitfulness intended for each life by Father God. Probably about the same decade as my friend was born, a custom-designed, apple seed had found its way into the nutrient-rich soil of a well-tended field. Human parents cared for, nurtured and protected Lita, and property owners over the years cultivated, nurtured and protected the apple tree. Many suns rose and set over Lita and the gardens of her life, at home and in schools as she cared for her family and plied her trade as a classroom teacher. Likewise, the apple tree was clearly not sun-deprived, but rather had grown well-rounded and verdant on all sides. Lita’s life had not been easy; particularly the last few years had been well watered with tears of sorrow and pummeled by winds of change. Similarly, it was clear that the apple tree had been watered by abundant rains and ground water and shaped by storms and perhaps early on by pruning shears in the hands of a prudent and all-seeing farmer. This is the soil and the kind of love – the kind of mercy, if you will - that is needed for both human lives and trees, to become fruitful.
 
As fruits of a faith-full life began to grow and multiply in Lita’s life, they matured and were appreciated by family, friends and students. Similarly, as year by year more apples began to grow on ever-increasing branches of the apple tree, they shone on the tree as a small, delicious (blood-red) spheres of faithfulness, hope-fullness and loving kindness, to be harvested and enjoyed by sight by drivers of vehicles passing by, and by taste by persons or creatures who picked them up and took a bite.   
 
Will my life -will our lives - like the apple tree in the field, and like my faith-full friend Lita, be good soil for the Word of God to become fruitful and multiply?
 
Sing to the Lord, Glory in his Holy Name.  Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually.  (Psalm 105:3,4)
 
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up our fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. (10:12)
Hosea, Prophet of the LORD in the 9th century B.C.
 
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Matthew 11:28 -30
It is true: each human being at one time or another in life is weary and carrying heavy burdens – of heart, mind, soul or strength. It is not true that we are designed to carry these burdens, our ‘cross’ as Jesus called it, alone. Our natural default from childhood is to ask our parents or other adults, and later friends, in our lives to help us carry the crosses that we bear, and this eases the load somewhat for us.  But in the end, in a truly disciplined and dynamic life, the weighty relationships, responsibilities, and roads of our journeys become too much for others to bear with us, let alone to understand.
 
Thanks be to God! An even deeper truth than the heaviness of our life-loads is that Christ Jesus, incarnate Son of God that he is, came into the human condition to show us that He not only knows the way through the wilderness, but that he is always present to us, ready to put himself in yoke with us, to mentor us in load-carrying.  Moreover, Jesus offers not only to carry our life’s-load with us, in His way, with His wisdom and strength,  but he also promises us (twice in two verses) that carrying the load with Him will give us rest. Why?  Because Jesus is gentle– that is, he is so very considerate of our beings and profoundly understanding,  and he is humble in heart -he has no hidden agenda for walking alongside us, only that we be saved. In addition, Jesus’ yoke is easy, that is, it fits us well, is custom designed for us;  and his burden is light – when we carry our load in tandem with Him, we the  Gifts of the Spirit are built into our journey – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, but perhaps most of all joy.
 
When I am being crushed by the heavy burdens that come to me, will I fall face down on the road of life and refuse to get up? Will I seek the help of others and become disillusioned with their lack of understanding and kindness, when they back away from me and my load of life? Or will I come alongside Jesus and let him settle his yoke across my shoulders so that I can learn from him how to carry the burdens we now share, and the joy of walking in step with Him, with the LORD who knows the way? 
 
Christ Jesus, help me take your yoke upon me to learn from you.  
 
Sing to the Lord, Glory in his Holy Name.  Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually.  (Psalm 105:3,4 )
 
We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.
St. Teresa of Avila
 
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Hosea 8:4-7 & 10:1-12 & Matt 10:7-15
Upon waking from sleep the ‘default program’ of my heart and mind kicks in.  Lately, instead of the panic that was plaguing me last month, it is a ‘program’ of documents and flood of woulda, shoulda, couldas informed by a programs and staffing review we are doing at work, that settle into my consciousness. Left unchecked by the Truth and Love of God proclaimed through quiet moments of prayer and scripture reading, such ‘default settings’ can de-rail my mind, soul and strength and create tangles and patches of darkness in the day ahead.
 
But our heavenly Father speaking through Hosea checked the Israelites for operating this way, for letting their own ideas, aka ‘default programs’, dictate their choices and actions. Through Hosea’s prophesies he showed them how leaning on other peoples’ cultures (instead of their own culture of reliance on the LORD) of appointing a King to take on all their own accountability and responsibility, has serious consequences.  
 
Jesus’ counsel to his disciples takes the guidance of the LORD one step further.  When he sent out his disciples two by two to carry out their life’s mission of healing, releasing, proclaiming the Good News and raising the dead, Jesus laid out for his disciples the way of the worker: As you enter a house, greet it. If it is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.  
 
In everything we do, in every day we live, like the Israelites and the disciples of Jesus before us, we are tasked simply with healing, releasing, proclaiming and raising the dead, in every relationship, every task we have before us. We are to do this in peace – and in absolute trust in God. Whether we are entering a new territory or phase of our lives like the Israelites, heading into a new day of work like the disciples, or just awakening into a new morning of life, we are to enter that newness in the peace and strength of Christ Jesus, informed by the Truth and Love of God’s mercy that gives us the ‘shoes of peace’ that we need to do God’s will. 
 
Will I ‘do’ my life through my own devices and designs, and ‘default programs’, or through the strength and wisdom of the LORD?  Holy Spirit of God, help me to do my life through you.
 
Sing to the Lord, Glory in his Holy Name.  Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually.  (Psalm 105 )
 
Listen and attend with the ear of your heart.
St. Benedict
 
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Romans 12:14-21
Made in the image of God as we are, it is no wonder that human creativity can appear to be infinite.  And I, for one, have endless ways of trying to figure out (to have power and control over) every situation, every relationship, every ‘good’ and every ‘bad’ that happens to me. My ‘be-ing’ becomes particularly busy when I am challenged with unexpected ideas or events, trying to accommodate new things to deal with, and new ways to be. And when such unexpected ideas or events originate within a challenging relationship that borders on, or I perceive as, ‘persecution’ my mind, and the emotions driving my thinking, go into high gear. Anxiety, resentment, and malice then become my default mindset, rather than prayer and praise of the Holy, healing, Spirit of God.
 
St. Paul well knew what it was to deal with persecution! For about half of his 60 years, Paul of Tarsus, the infamous Jewish Roman Apostle preached the Gospel of Christ Jesus in a world that was unstable not only politically but culturally, socially and theologically as well; a world where imprisonment, stoning, crucifixion, shipwrecks, and beheading were common; and a world where greed, fraud, and fickle friends were just as prevalent as they are today. Paul’s conclusion? Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God.  
 
What is the wrath of God? Is it God, our Creator cancelling out and crushing one of his beloved human beings?  This would not be in the character of the loving Father whom Jesus revealed to us.  Rather, the ‘wrath of God’ would seem to be the wise and mercy-full, custom-designed consequences of human actions that when they are fully experienced give one the opportunity to realize that the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life – and repair their ways from the inside out.  St. Paul realized that when he let go of his own plans and projects to bring his persecutors to justice, he was giving room for the Mercy of God to work directly on that person, in ways that no one -not even St. Paul – could understand. 
 
Will I persist with my own plans to end persecution, or will I leave room for God to work his wonders of life and love in the lives of all – even those who persecute me?  Holy Spirit of God, teach me to leave room for your Mercy in my be-ing.
 
Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.  (Psalm 85:8,10)
 
If the devil can’t make you bad, he makes you busy.
Corrie Ten Boom
 
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Psalm 16
When David the Shepherd began singing the lyrics of Psalm 16, he did not know, that the extent to which the LORD would go to  keep his beloved human beings well and prove his love for humankind.  From this side of history, though, we know the story: God sent his only begotten Son, Christ Jesus, into the world - to walk with us, and minister to us, and heal us, and teach us how to keep ourselves well by following Him, the ‘lamb without blemish’, who died on a Roman cross – so that all who believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This is our salvation. This is our Good News.  This is the deep mystery of Truth and Love, that alone can make life this side of the grass make sense.
 
Such Truth that is so profoundly rooted and grounded in Love can and does brings peace to our hearts like nothing else can. In my own life, I have loved others deeply, I have engaged in the arts, and I have given hours days and years to camping, gardening, and the cultivation of children’s lives as a school teacher – and loved every minute of these pursuits. But it is the Peace of Christ’s love for me that settles my mind and lets my heart beat with the rhythms of the LORD. It is singing the song of creation with all the angels and saints that that makes my soul rejoice, no matter the dissonances swirling around me.    
 
No medications work as well as a life of deep faith in Christ (aka prayerful alignment with our Creator) to calm rattled nerves, reduce blood pressure, bring health to blood and bones, and keep every cell of one’s body working for the ‘common good’ that is, the complexities of its own inner workings, as well as the systems of family and community in which I live and move and have my being.  Will I live into the Truth and Love of my own heritage of salvation in Christ Jesus?  Holy Spirit of God, let my heart be at peace, my soul rejoice, and my body rest secure in your salvation.      
 
 
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.  (Isaiah 61:10)
 
The breadth of Divine Love widens the narrow heart of the sinner.
St. Anthony of Padua
 
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