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so so humbled to have been invited to participate in this year's mid winners. And I can honestly say that I have never been this excited to preach to an empty church, but it's not empty, You

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are here and together, we're joined in a spirit of worship by the one from whom we cannot be separated. And so now let us turn to God's word as it comes to us from Matthew's Gospel.

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Again, Jesus said, what shall we say the Kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed which is the smallest of all seeds on

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earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants with such big branches that birds can perch in its shade. With many similar parables, Jesus spoke the word to them as

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much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable, but when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything The word of the Lord. So my wife

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holly, who's also clergy worked at a funeral home for several years and officiated on average, 200 funerals a year. Let that sink in. And I have had the honour. Or perhaps the affliction of

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listening to her funeral homilies while drinking coffee in the morning turns out the best part of waking up isn't Folgers in your cup, It's remembering you could be dead. She often read this passage when she did

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a funeral for someone whose life has been about creating sanctuaries for others. Like so many of the people whose names we will read tonight. It's such a good message for the end of someone's life. You

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know, the Kingdom of God, the Circle of Life and all that. But in contemplating this midwinter's sermon, I realized it isn't just a parable for the end of someone's life. It's a parable for

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transitions be that from life to death from normal to pandemic, From pandemic to unknown. This parable is a parable of a parable. It tells a story , but then it sneaks in this last line that

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says jesus did not say anything to them without using a parable. So you get a few lines about seeds and weeds. But then you get an understanding of how jesus educated the people, not through charts

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and graphs, facts and figures, but through a well told story in a book called How to Do Things with words. J. L. Austin claims that words don't simply describe things actually make things happen

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. For instance, when two people say I do , they're not describing their relationship, but actually creating the story for it. Words are evocative and we've seen this play out in good and bad ways.

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We've seen words like I can't breathe trigger marches that woke some of us up and we've seen words across twitter cause an insurrection words are powerful but mightier still is their ability to make things happen. My grandparents

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were married for 62 years and my grandfather tells or is the subject of many, a good, notorious texas. Parable first off, his name is Earl , but everyone called him bubba, that's B U

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. E. So that should tell you enough. And my grandmother tells this parable, she says, well bob was working on something, it wasn't going right and he got mad and he threw that wrench

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just as far as he could send it. And I said, now why did you do that? You just got to go get it. He said , because it makes me feel better. So I

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said, well you don't know how stupid that looks . But then she keeps telling the story saying one day I was in the kitchen and I was doing something and something went wrong, burnt something and I

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threw it up against the wall and he looked at me and said, have you gone crazy? And she said well if you can do it, I can too. Her words evoked in my grandfather the

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sense to have more since. Mhm. Her words weren't accusatory or critical. She simply made a claim if he can, she can. And that claim worked when a parable like this one gets told and

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retold become something more than a story about wrenches and something burnt, it becomes uncovered treasure. The very Kingdom of God right here in something as simple as sitting around telling stories and allowing those stories to draw

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us together. And the parable of the mustard seed jesus wasn't simply describing the Kingdom of Heaven, He was evoking it, bringing it here and now with a story And with that one story, were to

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find our own way, our own path, uncover our own treasure in a way a parable is a lot like a seminary education where you can find your calling at the Hutto deportation center but still know how

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to exit jeet the new testament or where you can join Bill Greenway in an obsession with an obscure theologian . No one in your congregation wants to hear about but still be able to preach a sermon that would

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make Casey Tomi proud a parable. You have to look at it from all sides and you have to find what is created for you, what is a vote for you. And for me that happened during

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my very first semester of seminary after class, I was talking with stan hall who taught liturgy X here for years and he said something like they crucified, jesus with nails of bread and wine. And I

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was like, what? I didn't know, we were allowed to talk like that. I thought what we were doing here at this school was way more serious than learning to be poets, turns out it

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was exactly wrong about that. In this parable of the mustard seed, we risk missing the poetry when we limit its interpretation to small things, can grow into big things or don't judge a book by its

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cover? No, it's much bigger, more powerful , more evocative than that, because jesus chose a mustard seed not for its size, but because it was ugly. It was a weed, something to

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get rid of, like a wrench thrown across a yard and a bowl of something burnt stuck to the wall. And jesus was like, look, look at this hideous thing, it's got feeling and is

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useful and something to be thankful for. And not only that, but this mustard seed grows into a sanctuary, a sanctuary that speaks words of home to the birds and shade to the ground. A sanctuary

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that upsets a system where a weed is just a weed and instead makes a weed profound. I don't know exactly what ugly mustard seeds you've encountered in your life this year. Maybe it was figuring out how

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to school your kids from home and get work done . Maybe it was transitioning from teaching in a classroom , right over there to teaching in your guest room . Maybe it was not being able to visit people

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in the hospital as they lay dying. Maybe it was having to reinvent the ministry will maybe it was coming out, maybe it was being the black clergy person in a largely white church that held onto their

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purple politics. Even when Brianna Taylor died. Maybe it was someone not trusting your leadership. Ministry in whatever form it takes has never been an easy job . But let's be honest, this year has made

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it harder working to transition everything to online formats, shifting pastoral care strategies, managing finances and taking on the anxiety of congregations wondering what to do in moments like these Add to that over 400,000 American covid deaths

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, isolation from friends and family, the despair about how long this will last, The racial unrest and calls to protest the hot blooded politics and the mental health consequences that go along with all of this.

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We in this odd profession have seen and felt and held so much this year, which is why it just plain sucks that we can't be together of all the years. This is the one that finds us

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most in need of reunion so that we might come together and show our ugly weeds to each other and say, look, look at this hideous, horrible , unholy disaster. And here in return you're right

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. That is ugly. This was a year for throwing wrenches. I read an article a few weeks ago about how complaining can actually be good for you because when we share emotional content with each other,

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the bond between us deepens. But what's even better than complaining is when someone by some miracle helps us uncover treasure among our weeds, a solution. We didn't see a gift we didn't recognize a third option

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we never considered or maybe the treasure is just getting away for a few days to see old friends and mentors to eat migas in barbecue to enjoy margaritas on a sun soaked patio to find sanctuary. And yet

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here you are online on zoom yet again because you believe in the work you're doing and the people who join you in it, you're here for the words , words powerful enough to make things happen, to

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recharge you, to reunite you and to help all of us reimagine what it is we're doing powerful enough to reform us the way that God has always reformed us, not through pews and hymnals and in person

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worship, but through our ugly stories, through our weeds and shrubs, through the best of us. And the worst of us. What a treasure to uncover what separates parables from good literature is that they're

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not just well crafted stories but actually demand something of us. I mentioned stan hall earlier. We'll stand used to complain if you will. That too many communion tables were inscribed with the words in remembrance of

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me when what they should say is do this Because what story has ever demanded more of us than the story of bread and wine. Bread and wine. The very nails that crucified, jesus demanded of him

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his very life. And so do this is the reminder of what is demanded of ours. Do this take what's broken and empty and instead of calling it a waste, call it a treasure, call it

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useful. Call it something to be thankful for something that upsets a system where nails are for crucifying and instead makes nails for unifying this year through adversity, grief and exhaustion, we have uncovered something about ourselves

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that we are capable of seeing and holding and feeling so much, Which is what it means to make of our lives, the one that so much is demanded of a sanctuary. To not shy away from

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what's ugly, hard, devastating and anxious. But to invite it in, offer it refuge, give it a new story and then return it to the world as treasure. I hope this mid winners as

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different as it is, offers you sanctuary. Even if you can't be in this one, I hope the words you hear this week are powerful enough to make things happen. I hope they set a new

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story in motion for you. A story that inspires you and readies you to get back out there among the weeds to do the work of the Church. To lead it, to help create it. To

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bring words and stories into the world powerful enough to change the world from normal to pandemic, from pandemic to unknown, from life to death. May you find uncover and tell the stories of God's kingdom.

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May you continue to find treasure in the confusing, the ugly, the unwanted, and may you know that no matter what you throw against the wall or how well things are going that you are called to

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offer sanctuary in this broken, filthy, beautiful, loving, courageous, justice seeking, story making treasure