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If we are to around the front entrance of the church and if we bother to look up, we will see something odd, something that shouldn’t be there. Everything that needs to be there is there, but in that beautiful and majestic façade, there is something that disturbs the view. Because up there on the roof, we see something growing. Call it weeds, call it wild plants, or whatever they are called, those wild plants present two difficult questions. Just how did they grow up there? No one planted them there; they just grew from “don’t-know-what”. And just how did they keep growing? Up there is just concrete. There is no soil. So where did those wild plants get the stuff to keep growing? And someone can tell me that she thought we put some plants up there to decorate the roof! But something needs to be done and something is going to be done about those plants up there.
We cannot let those plants keep growing into bushes. Talking about bushes, the gospel mentioned something about a bush and it is connected with Moses. We will remember that episode in the Book of Exodus about Moses and the burning bush. For Moses, that encounter with the burning bush was just the beginning of a very dramatic mission of leading God’s people out of slavery from Egypt. One of the highlights of that mission was the parting of the Red Sea, where the Israelites crossed dry-footed but the Egyptian army perished when the waters closed in on them. That scene is retold in art and in movies but of course there are people who are skeptical about it. A boy was reading the Bible and his uncle came along and asked what was so interesting in there. The enlightened man laughed lightly, sat down next to the boy and began to try to open his eyes to the "realities" of the miracles of the Bible.
The boy was stumped. His eyes wandered from the man back to the Bible that was lying open in his lap. The man, content that he had enlightened a poor, naive young boy to the finer points of scientific insight, turned to go. Scarcely had he taken two steps when the boy began to praise God loudly. The man turned to ask the reason for this unexpected reaction from the boy. Lord, if it be Your will, please protect me. Whatever Your will though, I love You and trust You. As the enemy drew closer, he watched from the darkness of his hideout and could see them searching one cave after another. As they came to his, he got ready to make his last stand. To his amazement, however, after glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on. Suddenly, he realized that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for quite a while. We all face times of great trouble. When we do, it is so easy to forget the victories that God would work in our lives, sometimes in the most surprising ways.
From the first day of preschool, we're taught that sharing is a virtue. If little Billy wants the toy you're playing with, you (grudgingly) let him borrow it. On the playground, we're scolded by parents and teachers to "Take turns!" Sharing, we learn, is the glue that holds society together. It breeds trust, generosity and compassion among neighbors, cities and citizens. And now, in a brilliant Internet-inspired twist, sharing has launched an economic revolution. The sharing economy is built on the idea of collaborative consumption. In the traditional capitalist economic model, goods are owned by individuals. If you want to be able to drive to the store or the airport, you need to buy a car. If you want to keep your lawn in control, you need to buy a weed whacker. That's called personal consumption. Basically, it's a monetized form of sharing. If you own a car, that has value - both to you and the guy who wants to borrow it to drive to Buffalo this weekend.
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