Ronnie McBrayer

There's no such thing as "just a story;" not when it comes to the parables of Jesus. Martin Buber could have been describing Jesus when he said, "I must say it once again: I am only a storyteller. I have no teaching. I only point to something…I take he or she who listens to me by the hand and I lead them to a window. I open the window and point to what is outside. I have nothing to teach, only stories to tell.” Yet, these stories connect us, change us, and invite us to encounter God. This is Part 3 from Matthew 13, a series entitled, "Until Kingdom Comes." 

In this continuation of his series on Matthew 13 entitled, "Until Kingdom Comes," Ronnie takes up Jesus' explanation of the Parable of the Sower/Soils. He says, "Not everyone will hear the good news of the kingdom of God; not everyone who hears it will respond; not everyone who responds will stick with it.  Our job as sowers of the seed is to do just that: Sow the seed. We don’t judge. We don’t fight. We don’t try to force a result that is impossible to achieve. We study the ground. We come to understand what it can receive - and we do the best we can. We love. We serve. We walk our walk. We practice the way of Jesus. That is the good seed, and we scatter it about. And then we trust that some of it will find a welcome home;  we leave the ultimate result - the harvest - to God. 

This is the first in a series of talks on the parables of Matthew 13. Jesus' message in these stories is about the kingdom of God, and how each of us can open our hearts, eyes, and ears to this message. In Jesus' words: “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

An encounter with Jesus and a song by Hank Williams combines to challenge us all: While we find it much easier to critique and manage the lives of others, our true responsibility is deeply personal and deeply focused; to follow the particular path Christ has for each of us, and to "mind our own business."

"On this day in history, September 13th: Hadrian began construction on a great wall across the north of England (122)...Michelangelo began carving the statue, 'David' (1501)...Army physician Walter Reed was born (1851)...so was Bill Monroe (1911)...Nintendo released a game called 'Super Mario Brothers (1985). And on this day in history in the year 335, The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was dedicated in Jerusalem, marking the location of Jesus' death and resurrection. That church - with its strange and tormented history - is a pretty good representation of Christianity at its most honest and nitty-gritty. I think it is a good metaphor for the institution itself, and that it can also speak to our individual, personal faith..."

"It is the evaporation of common memory, what a society experiences over time, say a time span of 25 years.  When a tragedy is new, the wound fresh; everyone knows, everyone remembers. But as time goes on, evaporation makes the remembrance pool smaller and smaller until one day, only the outline remains of those who once knew, experienced, and swam in the waters of what had happened. In our own country, already a full third of population has no memory of the events of September 11, 2001. Solemn commemoration grows more important, the intentional act of holding people in the common memory."

"Love is all energy, all strength, all health, all beauty, and all good work, well done. Love is the thinker of every good thought. Love ties all things together. Love makes all things one. Love is all there be. The books of the Holy Bible never say but one time just exactly what God is, but in three little words it pours out a hundred million college educations and says, ‘God Is Love.’ Love is the only God that I will ever believe in.” - Woody Guthrie

On a hot August Sunday 19 years ago, the fledging congregation known as "A Simple Faith" met for the first time. The 20th year begins here.

This is Ronnie's conclusion (Part 2 of 2) entitled: What To Do In A Storm, based on Acts 27.

"A storm is coming. You can count on it. And how I wish the coming storm was just thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening; just a little wind and rain. But the storm I’m talking about is more severe than that. I’m talking about personal, sometimes private storms. I’m not a pessimist. I’m not trying to make you feel bad or make you afraid; to live coiled up, waiting for the next shoe to drop is no way to live at all. I’m just an early alert system: Storms are bound to come. Most of them blow over in a day or two, and we are no more worse off for the wear. But some storms are life-altering, faith-testing, soul-crushing disasters. They break us. They lash and torment us in ways that the outside weather never could. Where do you turn in the midst of one of these land-falling hurricanes? How do you survive the darkest thundering days and the endless, sleepless nights? What do you do in a storm?" (Part 1 of 2.)