Sermon for July 30 2017
Proper 12 A RCL – Track 1
Jesus put before the crowds another parable: “The
kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his
field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the
greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
make nests in its branches.”
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of
heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of
flour until all of it was leavened.”
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure
hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and
sells all that he has and buys that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a
merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went
and sold all that he had and bought it.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net
that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full,
they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the
bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate
the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
“Have you understood all this?” They
answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been
trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings
out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
Today we continue – as I mentioned last week, with a quick series
of parables about the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven is like – a mustard seed, leaven, hidden treasure,
a fine pearl and lastly a net. The
remarkable thing is the very ordinariness of the parables. They talk about the kingdom of heaven in ways
that perhaps we can understand. But they
also have another element to them. They
are, if you will, crazy and are subversive and not just a little devious!
When we stop and examine the parables the describe a kingdom of
heaven that is just a little discomforting.
The kingdom of heaven is like an invasive weed that some fool plants and
it takes over the fields. Around here we
could say that the kingdom of heaven in like the so-called tree of heaven that
once it gets a single toe hold in your garden will keep coming back. It will keep sprouting no matter how many
times you pull it up. It will sprout in
the darkness under your house if it gets just a spark of light. When I was growing up we had a small fire in
the house because one of those trees grew up into our furnace under the
house. All it needed was the pilot light
to get it going.
So in this parable the kingdom of god is like an invasive weed
that once it gets planted will grow in the most unlikely places and will be
difficult to extract. This is good
news! Once the smallest of seeds of God’s
love get sown into our hearts or into the hearts of those we encounter it will
have the tendency to grow. But this also
means that God’s kingdom will sprout up in the most unlikely places and in the
most inconvenient times!
The Kingdom of heaven is like leaven hidden in the flour. Our translation says that she mixed yeast
into the flour but other translations state that the Kingdom of heaven is like
a women who hides leaven into the flour.
And the result is that the whole of the flour is transformed by her
somewhat subversive act. One could say
that she contaminates a large amount of flour with the leaven – like the
starter from a sour dough bread. A small
amount of the leaven will transform the basic flour into a dough that can be
baked and turned into wonderful bread that will sustain us.
Once again Jesus is comparing the kingdom of God to something
that can transform the ordinary into something else. Something that not only will grow and
multiply but will sustain us. The good
news for us is that it doesn’t take much leaven to transform a whole lot of
flour into something wonderful. And the
Holy Spirit is likely to hide some leaven in our hearts and wait and see what
grows. That leaven will take over and
our whole being will be transformed into God’s kingdom.
The kingdom of God is like hidden treasure that is found in
someone else’s field. Did you catch that
part? The treasure that is found is not
even in our field. It is in someone else’s! And instead of letting the owner of the field
know about the treasure the finder of this treasure sells all they own and
purchases the field so that they can get the treasure. Perhaps we can think about this like the Gold
Rush in California. People stake claims
on land where they find a little gold – or gold bearing rock formations and the
then mine it to get the rest of the gold.
The kingdom of heaven is like a pearl of great price that once
found you are willing to sell everything else to obtain it. But what do you do with a great pearl once
you have it in your possession? That is
what I always wonder in this parable.
But God’s economy is one that apparently doesn’t worry about these
things. Once we have found God’s great
and precious pearl we will be satisfied.
Or perhaps we are to use that great treasure to bring in God’s
kingdom? Not to hoard but to use its
value to grow the kingdom of heaven by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked
and visiting the sick and those in prison?
So there is a bit if deviousness in the Kingdom of God?! God the Holy Spirit will find treasure in all
of us and once we discover that it is there we will do everything we can to
obtain it. But how many of us are really
willing to sell everything we have to follow God? This little parable tells us that there is
some cost to the kingdom of God. There
is treasure but there is cost. That cost
is letting go of those things that prevent us from seeing God at work in the
world. Letting go of the societal
expectation that only certain people are worthy of God’s love. God’s finds treasure in unlikely places and
in unlikely people. And when we
recognize that we will be able to see God’s kingdom surrounding us.
Finally, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that gathers all the
diversity of God’s creation into it. The
net is non-discriminating. And God’s net
is large. And our calling is to help
open up the net so that all of God’s creation is gathered. It is striking that nets – unlike say fishing
with bait that attracts specific fish is indiscriminate in what it
gathers. It will gather what we think of
as the good as well as the not so good.
And again – just like last week we hear that we are not to judge what is
good in the net and what is not good. We
are just to open the net as big as we can.
And let God do the sorting at the end of times.
Which means the kingdom of God is messy! All kinds and sorts of people are gathered
into the net. All kinds and sorts. That does not make of a neat little dinner
party where we all have things in common.
It makes for a wonderful and messy party. One where all of the diversity of God’s
creation can be valued.
All of these parables tell us that we can glimpse the kingdom of
heaven in the ordinary. Gods wonderful,
subversive kingdom happens all around us.
It happens in the planting of God’s love in places where others would
say are not worthy. It happens when that
love is sown and is spread indiscriminately throughout our society. It happens that even when only a small number
of people are providing that love it infects the rest of those around us and it
will grow. ‘
It may be that the churches don’t grow but if we sow God’s Love
in our world the kingdom of heaven will grow.
That little bit of leaven in the flour can transform. But it can’t transform unless it gets out
into the flour. The kingdom of heaven
happens when we go out into society.
The kingdom of heaven happens when we see the value in our neighbor. When we advocate for justice for those that
society are uncomfortable with. The
kingdom of heaven happens when we react to the denigrating of our transgendered
brothers and sisters by condemning policies that discriminate against
them.
We sow God’s
kingdom when we react with love to polices that exclude. We sow God’s kingdom when we work to provide
for those who have nothing. In Jesus’s
day and in ours there are people who society acts as if they are undesirable or
even expendable. People who are treated
little better than animals. We see God’s
kingdom when we turn that societal believe upside down and recognize the value
of every bit of God’s creation and treat it with the love and respect that we
all deserve.
At the end of the series of parables Jesus asked the crowd. “Do you understand?” which they say they
do. And by extension Jesus is asking us
if we understand. And while we want to
say that we understand what the kingdom of heaven is like I wonder if that is
true. Do we understand?
David Lose, a preacher who I follow said, “that God’s disruptive,
life changing, and ultimately life-giving kingdom is coming. It will take some
patience, trust, and perseverance to await it, and when it comes it will likely
not be what we expect and perhaps not what we even wanted. But to those who
recognize there is something more out there than the world has offered, to
those who are willing to acknowledge the deep ache in their hearts for a sense
of true if also elusive joy, then it will come as more than we could have
imagined and will invade, take over, and transform our lives. Even here, even
now.”[1]
These parable give us a glimpse of God’s kingdom in their
ordinariness. Because while we all have
probably been taught the vision of the pearly gates and the streets paved with
gold as the kingdom of heaven it probably looks very different. The kingdom of heaven looks a lot like this
place. It looks like the gathering of
people together who care about each other and care about our creation. It looks like people who are willing to let
that leaven into our hearts and spread God’s love in our world. And especially the kingdom of heaven is that
place where we value and respect the dignity of all of creation.
Perhaps we now know what the kingdom of heaven is like. It is
like a disruptive, inclusive, messy, loving place where all of creation is
valued. It is a place that we can enter
into now. And we enter into God’s
kingdom when we open our hearts to the messiness of the Holy Spirit and into
the messiness that is our human family.
It is a place where we are not to judge the value of anyone but where we
are to accept that they are children of God.
And if necessary God will take care of separating the good from the bad
at the end of time.
Our job is to continue to spread the invasive seeds, the matter
altering leaven and the treasures into our society. Then we will catch glimpses of the kingdom of
heaven. I catch those glimpses of heaven
all the time. In the welcoming of those
who have nothing into our services and into our fellowship. I see it when people give to those who many
in our society would walk past without a second thought. I see it when someone buys groceries for
another. I see it when we celebrate our
diversity.
The kingdom of heaven is coming – indeed it is all around
us. And we are called to help open it up
to all of creation. But beware – God’s
kingdom is not the kingdom that our society envisions. It is one where those who are content are
likely to be uncomfortable and where the uncomfortable are comforted.
Amen.
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