*Gospel: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Welcome this morning to a miscellaneous grab bag of parables. A stack, a potpourri of parables, using
limited human language and images to describe something indescribable—the Kingdom
of God.
If you find yourself confused by these parables, you’re not alone. Jesus asks the Disciples if they understand
and they quickly answer that they do. Don’t
believe it for one second. It is doubtful
that they do—more likely that they didn’t want to admit they feel confused and
look foolish in front of each other.
Even more hilarious that after they answer that they do understand,
Jesus throws out the most confusing parable of all, the something old and new
being brought out of the treasure.
Sometimes I find parables frustrating.
Sometimes exciting. This time I’m
kind of digging these parables. One
reason is that, like you, right now, I am waiting. I am waiting to see what this year will bring. I am waiting to be able to get back to
church, to swimming, to meeting up with friends, to visiting family. I am waiting for a vaccine. I am waiting for our leaders to lead. Like last week’s parables, there is waiting
involved here in this Gospel—a process.
I don’t have any easy answers in my life—the parables don’t offer easy
answers—they make us ponder. And what do
they make us ponder? Today I am excited to
ponder the transformation of something small and insignificant and even pesky,
into something of great value.
A mustard seed is small. To look at it you’d never know the power
within the tiny seed—all the information that is invisible. The mustard seed is
pesky—it grows willy nilly, a weed all over the place. And yet, when it is
planted into broken earth, tended, watered, and in season, what emerges is
surprising. It doesn’t just add value to
the land or the farmer, but it is valuable to the little birds, the
sparrows. It builds community, it serves
the small and weak. The mustard shrub gives
the birds a safe place to rest—the same birds that neither sow nor reap, the
same ones that God’s eye is on, the same ones that are of less value, and yet
know a secret of not sowing or reaping or gathering into barns, they know a
secret of faithfulness and trust.
Yeast, too, is small—a
single-celled fungus that converts carbohydrates into carbon dioxide, making
the bubbles that give our bread such fluffiness. Looking at a bit of yeast, you might not
think much of it, yet there is unexpected power in just a little of it to cause
a whole loaf of bread to rise. That
wonderful bread texture is there because of the yeast. What is small goes a long way and makes a
cracker into something delectable.
Yeast, too is pesky. The
Israelites baked unleavened bread for the Passover. Yeast was suspicious—it is a contaminant that
is floating around in all our kitchens.
The Israelites couldn’t spare the time to let the dough rise. When Pharaoh finally let the people go, they
were going to need to move quickly. So
yeast was prohibited at the Passover and thrown out. But this contaminant has value to affect the
whole community.
Maybe a field doesn’t seem like
much—some dirt, some shrubs, maybe a few mustard plants. But some people can see the potential there that
no one else sees. Maybe its an actual
treasure hidden there. Maybe it is the
capability of the land to produce with a little hard work. What on the surface looks ordinary or like a
whole lot of hard work, holds a value and potential. A field can feed a household, a village. It can take a household from poverty and
malnutrition to stability and health.
A pearl starts out a grain of
sand in an oyster shell. The oyster covers
the irritant with the same things it makes its shell out of. Over time a pearl may form. To take what is irritating and transform it
into something of value seems to be the theme of our parables—seeds, dirt
clods, fungus and now sand. All these
ordinary things, irritating things, are useful and powerful.
A net is thrown into the
sea. What is hauled up might have value
or might not and so a sorting takes place, to keep what is of value and return
what isn’t.
What is of value is the topic of
the other readings for this morning, too.
Solomon doesn’t ask to enrich himself with long life or wealth, but asks
for wisdom, an understanding mind. In
this moment he knows what is of greater value.
In the Romans reading, too, God
called and justified us sinners, with all our weaknesses. We don’t even pray as we ought, yet God gives
us the Holy Spirit to intercede for us, to make known our needs. We experience every kind of hardship and
weakness, yet none of that reduces our value in God’s eyes. None of that comes between us and God.
I conclude from all this that
the Kingdom of God and its inhabitants might seem ordinary or pesky, not always
valued in this world. Religion and
Christianity gets laughed at and dismissed.
Our ways can be pesky and irritating especially to the powers of this
world. And yet we find that God empowers
us to make a real difference to others in our community, providing a safe place
to shelter, inviting people into community, sharing food, sharing God’s
love. What has been seen as small and
laughable, now is shown to have value to transform the whole community.
We too might dismiss something small and irritating. We might not listen to a child. We might drive right past a brother or sister
in need. We might, but God has a wider
of view and a different sense of what has value. God doesn’t look for what is lacking or
broken. God looks for the
potential. And it is the attention, the
focus, that God is willing to invest, that brings to light the great
possibilities in small, ordinary, pesky things.
God doesn’t mind investing in something small and ordinary. God finds that worthwhile. God is in this way, hopeful and faithful. God
keeps showing up and investing, faithfully, in what might come to be, that one
of God’s creation would know it is valued and respond accordingly.
We might tend to invest in sure
things, and give our attention to what is shiny and new. But sure things don’t need us to invest in
them. What is shiny and new already has
a lot of attention and our attention won’t make a bit of difference. What is a sure thing has its faith in itself—it
doesn’t need anyone or anything. So God
chooses what is ordinary and plain to invest in. God sent Jesus, an ordinary baby, to grow up
in our midst and give attention to people who were ignored, who were
pesky. Jesus didn’t come to make people rich
and famous or make their lives glamorous.
He came to show us all what value we have to God.
In response, having received
God’s grace and love, and being transformed, we are more in his image, and we
start to see the world the way God sees the world. We start to see the potential in ordinary
things and people. We start to value the
little birds, the little people, the ones that can’t enrich us in return. We are transformed into people who are full
of hope. We’re excited about what we’re
going to find. We’re excited by a grain
of sand, a seed, a patch of dirt, a grain of fungus. We’re excited by people’s value irrespective
of what they do or how much money they make or how well-spoken or how beautiful
or handsome they are. Their value comes
from their relationship as one of God’s precious children. That relationship transforms us from fear to
hope, from despair to faithfulness.
The pearl and field and the
leaven are like the Kingdom of God. They
are not the Kingdom of God. But by
pointing them out to us, Jesus is showing us what to look for as we look for
the Kingdom of God already here, breaking in.
If we know what we’re looking for, we can open our eyes and see God at
work.
I saw the Kingdom of God this
week. I bet you did, too, because it is
here right now. I saw video of two boys
trapped in a burning apartment in France. The 10 year old dangled his 3 year old brother
over the balcony and dropped him 4 stories to strangers waiting to catch him,
then flung himself down after. This apartment
received attention from the Prime Minister a few years ago who criticized it
because it houses so many immigrants. It
was these ordinary people, who came together, and risked injury to catch these
two boys and save their lives. Those
doing the catching received several broken arms. The boys had no serious injuries. This is the Kingdom of God. Strangers coming together, immigrants,
despised and pesky, and they reached out and came together in faith that they
could make a difference. And they did. Where did you see the Kingdom of God this
week?
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