Author: Daniel Westfall

Ep.136: Weeds Among the Wheat.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.  

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ second parable is about wheat and weeds. 

Here’s the story. 

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted wheat. But soon the farmhands reported, “Your wheatfield is full of weeds. How did that happen?” 

“My enemy must have sowed the weeds,” he replied. 

“Shall we pull them up?” asked the helpers. 

“No don’t do it,” replied the farmer. “If you pull the weeds, you’ll damage the wheat. Let the weeds and wheat grow together until harvest. Then we can separate the weeds and burn them, and gather the wheat into the barn.” 

Here are three questions about this parable.
– Jesus used the story to teach about the kingdom of heaven. So what is the kingdom of heaven?
– Second, where did the enemy come from? and finally
– How does this parable teach us to deal with evil? 

Let’s start by looking at what Matthew calls “the kingdom of heaven”. Mark and Luke call it “the kingdom of God”. Clearly, God is king, but he’s invisible. Jesus is his man, but he was hung on a cross. The church is his people, but we are a squabbling, divisive, disorganized crew. I am an agent in God’s kingdom, but my loyalties are conflicted and my behavior inconsistent. Is God really king over all this chaos? Jesus’ answer is, “Yes, he is. But he doesn’t express his kingship with incessant tweets or military parades or displays power. He expresses his kingship with simple, unremarkable strategies like sowing seed and watching it grow.” 

Meanwhile, God’s enemy is also sowing seeds in the world. Where did this enemy come from? If God created everything that exists, and if he created it all good, where did something go bad? Who invented the weeds? Jesus, like the rest of the Bible, never gives a clear answer to this question. The answer implied in this parable is,  “Look at the world you live in. Clearly, there’s lots of good crops sown by God and lots of bad stuff sown by someone else. It’s God’s enemy who works in weeds and disease and war and chaos.” 

So, what to do about the evil in the world? In Jesus’ wheat-and-weeds parable, the farmhands want to rip out the weeds and destroy the evil. Perhaps a drone strike will fix the weeds. Or spray them with lethal chemicals. Get right on the problem before it gets worse! But Jesus says, “No, don’t do it. If you try to identify and uproot all the evil, you’ll destroy most of the good along with it. Let the good and the evil grow together, and we’ll sort it out at harvest time.” 

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, you were born into a world with a long history of cruel kingdoms and relentless warfare and monstrous disasters and disease. But it is also a history marked with human love and creativity and beauty. And you announced that this world is God’s kingdom. And that the good seeds God planted in this field called “Earth” are growing inevitably into a harvest. 

On good days, we see and believe this, Lord. But on bad days, the weeds of evil fill our vision, and we fear the strong enemy who sows chaos. We live among the weeds of pandemic and economic crisis, and we grow our own weeds of fear and isolation. But through it all your good seed grows along with the evil, in communities that share their goods instead of hoarding, in the medical staff that risk their lives to heal the sick, in the governments that pass aid packages to help people through crises, and in our hearts when we trust that you care for us. 

O God, watch over your good seed as it grows in fields of disease and violence. Help us watch patiently as the good and the evil grow around us. Bring your harvest quickly, when you will burn the weeds and gather the wheat forever.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.135: Psalm 91: The Plague that Destroys.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

As the Coronavirus pandemic escalates in Europe and North America, I turn to Psalm 91.  Here’s what it offers me. 

As a psalm of trust in God, it opens with powerful images:
  The one who lives in the shelter of the Most High,
      will rest at night under his shadow (v. 1). *
   Say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
      my God in whom I trust.”
  Surely he will save you from the hunter’s snare
      and from the deadly pandemic (vv. 2-3). 

The psalm continues with these pictures of God’s protection:
    He will cover you with his feathers,
      and under his wings you will find refuge;
      His faithfulness will be your shield (v. 4).

In World War II, when my father was a medic in the Philippines, a wasting disease ran through the troops. My father took these verses from Psalm 91 for his comfort and protection:
    I will not fear the terror of night,
      nor the arrow that flies by day,
    nor the disease that stalks in the darkness
      nor the epidemic that destroys at noon.
    A thousand may die at your side,
      ten thousand at your right hand,
      but it will not come near you (vv. 5-7). 

God kept my father from the disease and protected his life in the war. Twenty years later, mid-way through his fifties, he got cancer and turned to Psalm 91 again, this time to God’s promise:
    You will call on me and I will answer;
        I will be with you in trouble,
        I will deliver you and honor you.
    With long life will I satisfy you
        and show you my salvation (vv. 15-16). 

After a cancer operation and radiation my father lived the rest of his life cancer-free. When he died at age 78, with tears in my eyes I read Psalm 91 at his funeral from his worn King James Bible.

Today, in the Coronavirus pandemic, I turn to Psalm 91 because it brings me home to my father’s faith and to my own. God was with my father in his times of trouble–the Great Depression in the 1930’s, World War in the 1940’s, and cancer in the 1960’s. God is my refuge too. He will see me through the plunging stock market, the raging pandemic, the social distancing, and the changed world that emerges. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we pray parts of Psalm 91.
    We live in your shelter
      and spend our nights in your shadow.
    In times of trouble we run to you for refuge,
      we trust you with our lives. 

    Save us from the hunter’s snare,
      from the deadly pandemic.
    Cover us with your feathers,
      Protect us under your wings, so that
    we will not fear the terrors of night,
      nor the arrow that flies by day,
    nor the disease that stalks in the darkness
      nor the plague that strikes at noon. 

Thank you for your promise to us:
      Because we love you, you will rescue us.
          You will protect us because we acknowledge your name.

You say to us:
      Call on me and I will answer you
          I will be with you in trouble,
          I will deliver you and honor you.
      With long life will I satisfy you
          and show you my salvation. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

  • See Alter, Robert. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. 91:1) for translating verse 1b as a night image.

Ep.134: The Farmer and the Seeds.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.  

Today, we look at Jesus’ parable of the sower. Here’s the story. When a farmer sowed his field, some seeds fell on the path and the birds ate them. Some fell on rocky ground where they grew quickly, but soon the sun scorched the new growth. Some seeds fell among thorns, but the thorns choked the young plants. And some fell on good ground and produced a generous crop. 

When the disciples were alone with Jesus, they said, “What was that all about?” 

Jesus explained that the seed is the word of God, it is the message Jesus brings, which gets different responses from different people. When people don’t understand the message, the evil one snatches it from them, like birds pecking seeds on the path. Some people, like seeds on rocky ground, receive Jesus’ message gladly and believe for a little while, but something else attracts their attention and they move on to other interests. Some people, like the seeds falling among thorns, receive Jesus’ words; but the weeds of worry and riches and pleasures choke the little plants. Finally, the seeds on good ground are those with a “noble and good heart, who hear Jesus’ message, retain it, and by persevering, produce a crop” (Luke 8:15).  

Here are three observations on this parable: 

First, some people want to change the title from the “Parable of the Sower” to the “Parable of the Soils” because they say the point of the story is in the different types of soil. In this view, we need to take soil samples in our life, and create conditions in which Jesus’ word will grow in us. I agree that this is one of the points of the parable. But another important point is the sower’s point of view: when people preach Jesus’ message, what sort of responses should they expect? As for the title, since in Matthew’s gospel Jesus called his story the “Parable of the Sower”, I stick with his title. 

Second, the parable demonstrates that Jesus’ words are not always powerful in themselves. In the creation story, when God spoke his word, the universe sprang into being. This makes us think, “God’s word is powerful. It can do anything. Jesus’ words should be the same!”

But the parable of the sower doesn’t teach it that way. The word of God Jesus teaches does not automatically take root in your life and create something new and amazing. 
When I was in seminary, one of the students asked, “Why aren’t people’s lives changed when they hear God’s word preached every Sunday?” I commented to him that Jesus expected his words to be eaten by birds and stolen by the evil one and scorched by the sun and choked by thorns. He anticipated that only some of his words would be received, that only some would find good soil to grow in. 

My last observation is that if you want Jesus’ message to change your life, it requires some cooperation and effort on your part. Let bits of the word settle like seeds into the soil of your life, water the seeds and protect them from the scorching sun, and pull the weeds, until the message matures into a harvest. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, what kind of soil are we? I suspect most of us are a mixed landscape. Some places in our lives are rocky soil where your word doesn’t grow. Some places are overgrown with weeds that choke your word. And some places are rich soil where we love your word and let it grow in us and change us. 

We ask you to increase the good soil in our lives. Pull up the weeds, pick out the rocks, protect the tender plants that take root, and help us mature in the warm sunshine of your love.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.133: Psalm 58: Bathe Your Feed in Blood.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

There’s a striking and disturbing image in Psalm 58. It says,
    The righteous will be glad when they are avenged,
      when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked (v. 10). 

Imagine for a moment a foot bath where you soothe your weary feet in the warm blood of your enemies. Disturbing, eh? But this bloody image in Psalm 58 is as current as today’s news. 

Consider Syria’s nine-year civil war: half a million dead, 5 million refugees, and 7 million internally displaced people. Bashar al-Assad has waged a brutal war, using chemical weapons and targeting hospitals, schools, and other civilian areas. The Economist magazine (KAL, “KAL’s Cartoon.” The Economist.com. Web. 5 Mar. 2020.) published a cartoon with al-Assad and Vladmir Putin in a bathtub filled with blood. Al-Assad says , “Should we be afraid of the corona-virus?” Dismissively waving a bloody hand, Putin replies, “We wash our hands regularly.” 

Psalm 58 responds to news like this with a prayer that those who create needless wars and bloodbaths should themselves be bloodily defeated. 

In reflecting on psalms of vengeance like this, I offer three observations. 

First, the psalms are not about the conflicts of everyday life. They are not about the rude sales clerk or the annoying neighbour or the unreasonable manager. No, they are written and prayed as a response to extreme instances of injustice and bloodshed. 

My second observation is that these psalms paint very real pictures of war, injustice, violence, and evil. We North Americans often turn blind eyes to the tragedy in Syria, the brutal war in Yemen, the imprisonment of Uighurs in China, to ruthless African dictators, and to political corruption and poverty in Haiti. The psalms however paint vivid pictures of violence, and they respond with appropriately violent emotions, and with calls for justice.

My third observation is that the psalms of vengeance are prayers to God, not a call for the oppressed to rise up violently against their oppressors. In the psalms, it is God who executes justice, not us. We pray to him, as does the poet, “Your kingdom come”. We look with Paul for the time when the Lord Jesus will come from heaven with blazing fire to relieve those who suffer and to punish with everlasting destruction the workers of violence (2 Thess. 1:7-9).

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we are less enthusiastic than the poet about bathing our feet in the blood of the wicked. But we share his deep desire that you show yourself powerful on behalf of all the oppressed. We share his conviction that these bloody-minded leaders are like venomous cobras that have stopped their ears to the flute of the snake charmer. Will nothing, will no one convince them to stop the killing? 

With the poet we urge you to destroy the perpetrators of violence. Let your justice hunt them down. Let their actions boomerang on themselves. Let the chemicals they spray on others blow back on them. We agree with the poet, that you should:
– Break their teeth (v. 6)
– Make them disappear like evaporating water (v. 7)
– Make them melt into slime like slugs (v. 8)

And Lord, if you have a better solution for relieving oppression and fighting injustice, we are ready to hear it. With the poet, we express our confidence in you, our God:
    Surely you reward the righteous,
        surely there is a God who judges the earth (v. 11). 

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

KAL Cartoon, The Economist, 5 March 2020. https://www.economist.com/the-world-this-week/2020/03/05/kals-cartoon

Ep.132: Book Review: Fosdick, The Meaning of Prayer.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Today we look at The Meaning of Prayer by Harry Emerson Fosdick (New York: Association Press, 1915), published in 1915 during the first world war. My copy is a pocket size hardcover edition which I inherited from my mother.

The book covers topics like :“Prayer as Communion with God”, “Hindrances and Difficulties [in Prayer]”, “Unanswered Prayer”, and “Prayer as a Battlefield”. Each chapter contains seven daily devotionals, followed by comments and further teaching, and concludes with suggestions for study and discussion.   

I’m using the daily devotional part for Lent this year, marking my place each day with the ribbon. Last week, my wife told me she picked up the book, opened it at random, and read one of the daily devotionals. “It’s really good,” she said. So the book comes not just  with my recommendation, which many people consider unreliable, but also with my departed mother’s recommendation and my wife’s. It must be good.

The daily devotionals are well written, accessible, and usually quote the Bible and two or three authors on the topic of the day. Each finishes with a prayer from someone famous–Samuel Johnson, Anselm, Bernard of Clairvaux, Augustine, Thomas a Kempis, and others. 

The first devotional is titled “First Day, First Week.” Here’s an excerpt: “Samuel Johnson once was asked what the strongest argument for prayer was, and he replied, ‘Sir, there is no argument for prayer.’ One need only read Johnson’s own petitions . . . to see he was not declaring prayer to be irrational; he was stressing that praying is like breathing or eating, that we do it because we are human, and afterward argue about it as best we can” (Fosdick, 1, paraphrased). 

Another devotional reflects the World War One situation at the time Fosdick was writing. He says, “Prayer has been greatly discredited in the minds of many by its use during war. Men have felt the absurdity of praying on the opposite sides of a battle, of making God a tribal leader in heaven, to give victory as Zeus and Apollo used to do, to their favorites”  (Fosdick, 3). 

I like the devotional that quotes Abraham Lincoln saying, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I have nowhere else to go; my own wisdom and that of all around me seems insufficient for the day” (Fosdick, 6). 

I also like that Fosdick has a chapter on “Prayer as a Battlefield”. Here he quotes the Psalms and Jesus in Gethsemane and Paul on spiritual warfare. He says, “No one. . .has ever succeeded in describing the achievement of goodness except in terms of a fight. As Paul says, ‘The flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh’” (Fosdick, 162, paraphrased).

That’s Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Meaning of Prayer. Over a hundred years old, a bit dated, but well written, thoughtful, and encouraging. 

You can buy the book on Amazon, or get a free pdf on the internet. 

Let’s pray. 

Our Father, Fosdick says, “The intellectual puzzles are found in the fringes of prayer; prayer at its center is a simple and as profound as friendship” (Fosdick, 35). 

O God, strip away our intellectual doubts, our false and unworthy thoughts of you, and our false and unworthy prayers, until we are left face to face with you, the living God, in a friendship where we speak and listen to your quiet voice.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.