Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Yeah, wisdom, I could go for a lot more of that right now. What is wise? How do you make decisions about what is best for a congregation when two decisions are mutually exclusive? Do we gather again and risk spreading the infection into our community, into the folks who are a part of Trinity Lutheran and then on into family and friends? Do we wait to gather until there is less spread? Do we wait until we are safe from the virus when we gather? What of our community, what of our relationships during that time when we are apart, not coming together on a Sunday morning? Wisdom, yeah, I could use a lot more of that as we struggle through these times which are like nothing which has happened during our lives. 

Blizzards, yeah give me a good blizzard any old day now, blizzards come and then they go. This virus, numbers begin to look good and people start gathering and states and others are all excited to open up and let the economy start up again and then the numbers spike. The numbers go up and up and up and any gains which had been won are lost. 

Solomon asked for wisdom and God granted his request. You know the story of course. Two women, one child, both claim to be the mother. Solomon gives the command to cut the baby in two. Give half to each. The true mother renounces her claim so that her child might live. Solomon gives her the child, wisdom. That story would be just a few verses after what was read for the first lesson. It is a great picture. God asks Solomon what you would like. Solomon answers and God blesses Solomon because of the answer. A few verses later that wisdom shows itself as able to bring justice to this very difficult case. Unfortunately the story changes. Solomon was also a ladies man with 700 wives and 300 concubines. Some of those wives were foreign princesses. Those foreign women brought with them the religions with which they grew up. Those foreign religions eventually led Solomon astray. Chapter 11 of 1st Kings tells of how God warns Solomon against all of this. “2 The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.” Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. 3 He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord.” 

Wisdom was gone. No longer was Solomon one of the wisest if not the wisest person in all the earth. As warned there were those who were able to distract him, able to lead him away from the true religion of worshiping Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who led the people of slavery in Egypt into the land Solomon now rules. The consequences are that the kingdom will torn out of the hand of the descendant of David and given to another. His son Rehoboam becomes king and listens to his young friends rather than older wiser counsel and the kingdom is ripped apart as a result. 

Things that get in the way, so many things that get in the way or lead astray. How do we live faithfully? How do we live as the people of God in the time of crisis? How do we be who we are called to be in the midst of a pandemic. I know I have said it and I will say it again, probably many more times. We serve our neighbor, in love and humility we serve. There are far too many who are not going to worry about their neighbor for whatever reason makes sense to them. What can I do to care for my neighbor? What can I do to protect my neighbor? Might I have to give something up in order to do that? Might I have to take something out of the way, check my ego at the door, and humble myself? Do you think ego had part to play in Solomon deciding he was fine, God's special friend, didn't need to worry about the women he brought into the kingdom after all God gave him the gift of wisdom? I wonder, do you think the gift was taken away or did Solomon just stop listening to the wisdom he had been given? 

More than conquerors, that is how Paul describes us. Interesting choice of words isn't it for someone who lived that life of service, service to Jesus and service to anyone who would listen to what he had to say about Jesus. Interesting choice of words from the man who received forty lashes minus one five times, stoned, shipwrecked three times, beaten with rods three times, left for dead. Still he is more than a conqueror because . . . well because of Jesus. This promise which Paul proclaims is certainly one of the most powerful, one of the most comforting which is to be found in the pages of scripture. Nothing separates us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not stonings, not whippings, not beatings, not imprisonment, not disease, not pandemic, not anything in all creation, nothing separates us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

The trial you are going through as we go through this trial does not and will not and cannot separate you from the love of God. You are still loved by God, always loved by God. Jesus was given up for you, died for you so that without a doubt you would know the great love God has for you. Nothing separates you from God, from God's love. Then Paul gives that great list. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

That about covers it don't you think? Even though we are given up like those who are to be slaughtered, like sheep for the slaughter, as Paul was. That doesn't separate from the love of God. What you have done, what might come in the future, what enemies of all sorts have planned against you, what disease, what tragedy, whatever life can throw at you, it will not separate you from God's love. Yeah, I know, there are days when that promise doesn't feel like it is really there. There are times when that promise feels like it rings hollow. Good thing it does not depend on your feelings. Instead it depends on the one who makes the promise. It depends on the one who speaks and creation is formed. It depends on the one who gave his only son for you. The promise is for you because you are loved. It does not depend on you in any way. It is for you. 

This promise, is that the yeast? The good news of Jesus love for you, is that the mustard seed? The truth that you are a joint heir with Christ, is that the small thing which is filled with so much power that it can and will reshape reality by changing and reshaping your life? Are these words of our God so powerful that everything is changed? Yes of course they are. Those images in the parable, the mustard seed grows and shelter is provided. In Jesus we know there is shelter to be found. The yeast is hidden in three measures of flour. Three measures is about thirty-six quarts, nine gallons so in other words this small bit of yeast hidden is going to feed many. It would make enough bread to feed 100 people or so at a sitting. 

So it is with God's word, with the good news of Jesus. Shelter is provided, people are fed and nourished by that which seems small, by that which starts out small. The small of the good news of Jesus, does and will change lives. That is the promise, that is the word of the Lord. God grant us the wisdom to see this truth. God grant us the faith to live this truth. May we scatter far and wide these seeds which are entrusted to us. May the seeds we scatter root deep and grow well.