"Hard to Know"
Luke 13:18-21
Yonce Shelton, Westmoreland UCC
March 16, 2025
It is hard to know. Hard to understand some realities. Hard to empathize fully with others. Hard to know what to do. And it can be hard to know God. To seek to know is good. So is honoring whatever “small" things we can in that pursuit.
"What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”
And again he said, “To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
Small things that interact with a system to catalyze change and produce goodness. Seeds and yeast, barely noticed, end up creating beautiful things. Seeds and yeast literally help feed us. Sometimes all we can do is take a small action, know how essential it is, and trust.
Creating the kingdom of God is not wholly up to us. The only thing we can really do is nurture our faith and the growth of the Gospel within. Pay attention. Hope to mature. To become part of a much larger whole that matters for even more people. That can be powerful, even subversive.
In thinking about today, I came across the idea that this scripture could represent the first time in Rome that the kingdom was described as life-giving - not as a power to be feared. And that hiding yeast is a form of subversion.1
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“Power will often lie to you, so listen to the streets.”2
Last week, I was on a trip with faith-based leaders through the US South to focus on the history of race and civil rights - and the challenges still posed today by injustice. Joining us were four emerging Palestinian Christian leaders committed to reconciliation. We were seeking to understand how oppression and injustice in America relate to oppression and injustice in Israel/Palestine. Awareness of power grounded so much of our trip.
The Roman empire oppressed people. Empires today oppress people. Jesus’ life was about confronting that injustice. These Palestinian leaders are committed to that vision - and are forced to act on it now. The African American leaders who guided us are committed to that vision - and still must act on it. We must confront injustice too. Knowing how in recent months can be hard.
On this trip through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama we listened to people in the streets, which is to say people outside of the structures of power. We heard about resistance in the past - and resistance now. After touring a former slave plantation, a Palestinian leader said he thought he would come here and “add" an understanding of the trauma of slavery to the experience of trauma his people now face. But instead, he realized it is the same struggle. The same struggle
against oppressive power that dehumanizes others.
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Communion: the bread of life. Bread made with subversive yeast that keeps the mission of Jesus alive in us. Challenging power with a broken body. Eaten amidst betrayal and violence. Jesus teaching a new way to be together; strengthened; and transformed. Lent and communion - right now - are the spiritual practices and commitments helping Palestinian Christian leaders who are trying to keep their people alive.
This is hard for me to know - to understand - even having spent a week with them. The pain is hard for me to know. Hard to know what to do. Can I know some? Can we relate at all?
Many of us are down. We are confused, hurting, and worried. We are feeling the weight of an empire we don't trust. Some of you are feeling that very acutely. It's hard to know what to do. But we will find our way. On March 23 we'll have a dinner - we'll break bread - with federal workers and those who might be helpful to them. No one may know exactly what is needed or what we'll do. But we'll come together and trust our community power. We’ll come together because it's hard to know. And there will be other ways to know and act in coming months. These are seeds.
In a few moments, we’ll come together and celebrate the bread of life, an important part of Lent. Lent allows us to bring ourselves as yeast to the mix that God will work with. We bring the depth of our essence and trust God, not to provide easy answers, but to strengthen us on the journey of knowing and being known. Lent and communion are not about the progress we so often crave, but about re-orienting to relationship and need. So many of our struggles relate to an unhealthy relationship with the unyielding quest for progress at the expense of others. Lent is the opposite of trust in systems that harm us and others.
Communion is a reminder that we are but a small part of something much bigger. It is to know in new ways.
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I can never know what it is like to be Palestinian or African American. It is not just hard, but impossible, for me to know their struggles. Anything I say today about what I need, where I think you are, and the role faith can play in times of struggle is offered with awareness, humility, and respect. Things are simply not close to being the same.
At the same time, what moves me about the witness of these brave leaders is how much they trust in the Christian faith. How committed they are to nonviolence, reconciliation, and peace in the face of oppression; when it seems like the world is against them. It is hard to know how they resist the temptation to retaliate. They are simply in a deeper place.
We shouldn’t compare our struggles, but we should take seriously the depth of their faith and how our faith can deepen by embracing the tenets of faith we profess. They invite us into that way of being. The Palestinian leader who cried when noting that it's all one struggle preached at a church service during our trip. His message: Lent is resistance.
He talked about sumud, the Arabic concept of steadfastness (despite oppression); small acts of kindness; and the importance of humanizing others - even enemies. It's what we heard over and over from modern day civil rights leaders: the importance of recognizing humanity in the other and acting with love. The director of Selma's Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation shared a powerful example. The person who brings the most groups to the center to learn about racial injustice and nonviolence is a pastor on the opposite end of the political and religious spectrum from her. She brings people because, despite some disagreement, of the way love grounds the approach of the center.
Seeds. Yeast.
I want to follow the Jesus that allows those dehumanized to prioritize humanity; that allows love to lead despite anger. If those facing these struggles can place so much trust in Lent, surely we can.
The bread of life. Uniting us with Jesus and others in pursuit of a very different way to know self, others, God and the world. When you come forward, you likely won't feel any mystical movement - although don't rule it out. But you will be taking part in an act of resistance with Christians all over the world. You will be affirming a vast Christian community with members in various states of struggle. It may be for them as much as us. Hard to know what that may mean to you and them.
That’s powerful.
Amen.
