Showing up with Intention

A few weeks ago the New York Times ran a little visual essay on leaves and their emerging fall colors. A primer on how leaves go from green to gold and all those other radiant hues.

In spring and summer trees produce an abundance of chlorophyll, turning sunlight into energy. So as daylight hours fade, so does the chlorophyll. Or rather the chlorophyll goes where it’s nutrients are needed, the trunk and roots, allowing those other stunning pigments of color to shine forth before the inevitable fading and falling for our forts or leaf blowers.

Trees, in God’s good creation. do what they were created to do, when and how they were created to do it. Dressing for the season is not an issue.

I know, my preaching friend, we are not trees. I also know this is not a parable about wearing our Sunday best. It is about the kingdom of God, and I believe, the intentionality with which we accept God’s grace-filled invitation to see, embrace and rejoice in the kingdom, here and now.

So, back to my tree. It is the season that prompts the vibrant foliage display. Jesus didn’t share this parable at the start of his ministry, ears were too green at that point. We are near the end. He knows how little time he has left.  So with definitive intentionality he is speaking truth to power, aware of the consequences his authoritative and accusatory critiques will bring.

First, the tables were overturned in the temple in riotous protest. Then two parables which were almost, but not quite, as brutal as this one reach the same conclusion (Matthew 22). The kingdom of heaven is for lovers of God, those who turn towards God with their life. Turn with intentionality and trust despite how the world, and specifically the religious authorities, might label them.  

And now this last parable of violent imagery where you and I have to wrestle with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Are we really supposed to be afraid of God’s judgment? Big surprise, my answer is going to be “no.” This is not literal. It’s a parable to shake up our thinking.

When we undertake something important to us, we do so intentionally. We prioritize, we sacrifice. For those of you in parish ministry where we undertake to live into some pretty big promises on behalf of a group of people – are you intentional? Do you prioritize? Sacrifice?  How about make mistakes and sometimes fail? Speaking for myself, yes, yes, and yes!

But we keep showing up, don’t we? These days many of us in empty buildings preaching to people we have to trust are showing up too. In other words, my preaching friends, we show up with an intention of the heart. We clothe ourselves with an armor of light, as Paul might say (Rom 13:12).

We do our best to direct our energies, our light where they are needed most – at the roots. We continue to proclaim the good news of God’s love and the reality of the kingdom, the wedding banquet, the feast we are invited to see. We invite people to join the party and support each other in being that feast in the world.

I am not a fan of Matthew’s Jesus. Too angry, too punitive, too much gnashing. I can however relate from my own experiences, to that sense of urgency. It’s the urgency of protest. It’s the urgency of now. It’s the urgency of knowing we have this one incredible life too accept a divine invitation we sometimes ignore.

To show up with intentionality. To strive for the kingdom from our hearts. To let go of a comparative, “who is the greatest” mentality. To look at the log in our own eye, before we go pointing out the speck in the eye of someone else.

The invitation to the feast can always be seen in God’s good creation. Staring in awe can bring one to a place of grateful wonder. And from that perspective we may begin to see radiant hues within ourselves and around us. We may discover new ways our energy can be directed and shared. Heartfelt intentionality is what will fuel my words this Sunday as I join you in trusting my stories and experiences point to God’s grace-filled invitation.