Welcome to the daily devotional!

You can always let me know if you want to add anyone or unsubscribe. I will be exploring what we call the daily lectionary each day. This is a text that is used worldwide to explore scripture. This is the first time that I have explored “extended Advent.” We will see what this brings up for us. The idea is to mirror Lent with our waiting time this fall, moving into winter. Advent is about when Jesus comes back to the earth and we long for that kind of transformation.  I believe that the world yearns for these kinds of conversations.  It feels good to start this much earlier.

Sundays will be shorter due to the nature of what I do on Sundays in worship. I will use whatever scripture we will be using on Sunday morning to explore.

Today’s scripture is: Matthew 13:24-34 (NRSV)

24 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

31 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.

Those pesky weeds!  We all have them. We have them in our yards and for me they get overwhelming and here is Jesus saying that we really can’t pull them out. The truth is that we all have a mixture of weeds and good wheat.  They are intertwined in our own lives. Sometimes it is really hard to tell which is which until we have created fruit.  Here are some thoughts before I run to preach about it this morning….

If the weeds and wheat are people and we are tempted to help pull them, this scripture becomes about how it’s not our job. Plus we don’t really know which is which.

If the weeds and wheat are things within us, then we might have to learn how to appreciate both.

If the weeds and wheat are about what we do out in the world, then both have value and again it is not up to us to take care of it right away.

Good news…God is right along side us when we discover which is wheat and which is weeds….it’s all part of the kingdom here on earth.

Ok, I could go on for a while but I need to run.  More tomorrow.  Thanks for joining me on this journey!  Feel free to comment back often, visit my blog at https://pastorcourt.wordpress.com, and send the link to others. 🙂

Peace,
Courtney