He
put before them 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.”
Once
upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the
villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village
today." They
had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we
would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All
of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the
elephant.
"Hey,
the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his
leg. "Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who
touched the tail. "Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree,"
said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant. "It is
like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of
the elephant. "It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man
who touched the belly of the elephant. "It is like a solid
pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.
They
began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that
he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man
was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What
is the matter?" They said, "We cannot agree to what the
elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the
elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, "All
of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it
differently because each one of you touched the different part of the
elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you
all said." "Oh!" everyone said. There was no more
fight. They felt happy that they were all right.
You
see, the way we know what things are like depends a lot on our
experiences and point of view. And that changes from person to person
and even can change over time as an individual has different life
changes. When Jesus told these parables about what the kingdom of
heaven is like – he knew that they would be relevant to the
listener in different ways. He isn't describing seven different
kingdoms – but approaching it from a variety of perspectives.
Matthew
13 begins with the parable of the sower that Pastor Doug preached on
2 weeks ago – you remember? Seeds on the path, seeds in rocky soil,
seeds in thorns, good soil? The second parable has another farmer
coping with weeds this time. The third is where we began with today's
gospel reading. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It's
like yeast. It's a treasure hidden in a field. It's like a pearl of
great value. No, it's like sorting fish?
When
Pastor Doug asked me to speak today, one of the first things that I
did was to look up the lectionary scriptures for today. And when I
read the four passages, Matthew made me stop and stare at my computer
screen. During a recent lay servant training session I elected to
take a class called “Go, Preach.” It was described as a class
that would help me, a lay person, prepare a message. There were seven
lay people and one pastor teaching us. Although he said several times
that he wasn't saying that his way was the only way – I still had
the impression he considered his sermon preparation process to be the
best way. And we did not always see eye-to-eye on the process. First
he said that he rarely uses the lectionary – and I nearly always
preach from the lectionary! It is the connected worship of many
denominations. A great many pastors look to those four weekly
scriptures to determine their message topic for the week. Of course,
there are also a great many who choose other topics to "preach
on."
If
you think about it though...if even 1% of the Christian congregations
in the world preach on the same set of scriptures...that is 37,000
congregations all focusing on a particular aspect of our relationship
with God and with each other. That can be very powerful, especially
if we are intentional in the way we communicate with God - and with
each other.
Then
our instructor said that he rarely writes his sermons out. And I
ALWAYS do! I'm a pretty good extemporaneous speaker but I am not
going to walk into the sanctuary on Sunday morning and just wing it.
I take this opportunity seriously and want you to leave today with
some food for thought or insight or interesting perspective. I'll
even settle for healthy disagreement with my interpretation! You can
see that I'm heading for some head butting with this pastor.
So...we
get our class assignment. We are going to work as a group to
illuminate this scripture: 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.”
I
must warn you – if you are going to craft a message...doing it by
committee is a BAD idea. But the brainstorming commenced. And the
elephant touching began right away. “Who does the woman represent?”
Is it God? Is it the church? Is it me? Am I mixing the bread? “What
is the bread?” Is it my life? Is it the world? Is the yeast the
Word? Is the yeast the outreach of disciples? Why THREE measures of
flour? Is this a trinity reference? Over the course of about eight
hours we came up with a couple dozen different permutations – if
the woman is God and the yeast is the church's influence then the
bread is the realization of the kingdom. On more than one occasion I
was even told my somewhat out-of-the-box thoughts were wrong!
Thirty
words total. Hours of perspectives. Because we each brought to the
discussion different points of view and experiences. I lost track of
how many times I thought to myself - “oh, I hadn't considered it
like that.” So it should be no surprise that Matthew 13 has seven
stories of what the kingdom of heaven is like.
I
don't think it is about a location, more about a belonging.
Being part of something. Heaven
is where “The King” reigns from, but His kingdom describes where
His people live. It’s here and now –not somewhere that we go
after we die.
The
parables all begin with a phrase such as: “the kingdom of heaven is
like a man who sowed good seed…” They can be better understood by
reading this as “The kingdom of heaven can be described
by
the story
in which a man who sowed good seed…” It’s the entire story
(told in seven different ways) that represents the kingdom. Each
parable has a different context: a farmer, a gardener, a cook, a
treasure seeker, a merchant, a fisherman. The intent is for the
reader to identify himself with at least one of these so that the
message is relevant to him.
The
comparison to the mustard seed has always intrigued me. Just like our
call to worship said today, why would something so tiny and
insignificant be compared to the kingdom of God? But I've learned
that there's a lot packed into the tiny seed. Tremendous potential.
As I
showed the kids in the children's sermon – mustard seeds are little
itty bitty things. But any of them who tasted the seeds can tell you,
there is a burst of flavor when you chew them. Not quite like the
potency of French's yellow mustard – because most of that tang
comes from copious amounts of vinegar! But for such a small seed, it
packs a punch. And the power doesn't stop there!
When I
was working on a message based on Luke 17 – where Jesus tells the
disciples that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed they
could get a tree to go jump in the sea – I learned a great deal
about mustard weed. Do you know what mustard weed was like in Jesus'
day? It was like the kudzu of Palestine. It grew wild. Birds ate it
but didn't entirely digest the seeds – and the seeds were dropped
everywhere. It would take over fields and crops. You could pull it up
but more birds would eat more mustard weed and it would be back. It
was persistent, irritating and fast-spreading.
This
tiny seed has potential! It grows into the greatest of shrubs
according to Matthew 13:32. Becomes a tree so that the birds of the
air come and make nests in its branches. It can take over fields. It
seems so insignificant in seed form – but given the basics of soil,
sun and water...boom! It's now substantial!
Now –
who or what is the mustard seed? Is it faith that grows to be
substantial enough to protect? Is it the church reaching out and
spreading the love of God like kudzu? Am I a mustard seed? Is
Centenary a tiny powerhouse of potential just needing soil, sun and
water to grow? Who is the sower and why in the world would he go and
purposely sow a FIELD with mustard seed?
We
could spend eight hours discussing and debating every possible
meaning of every aspect of this very short parable. And just about
any combination would hold meaning for someone in this room. And we
could let it dissolve into an argument just like the blind villagers
who touched the elephant. But I would invite you to listen to the
wise man who told those villagers they all had a different
perspective of the same animal – we come to our understanding of
the kingdom in a multitude of ways. I am not qualified to judge that
your pathway is right or wrong. I am just as blind as the next guy. I
can only share how I've come to my conclusions and embrace the core
truth – that God loves us and wants to be in direct relationship
with each of us as individuals. And I can hope that we believers get
to the same spirit that the six blind villagers came to – after the
wise man explained that they were all right – they just had touched
a different part of the elephant. "Oh!"
everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they
were all right. Even when we disagree, can we hear the other
perspective? Can we still see what God sees in the other person?
God
can get tiny if we're not careful. Too often we fall into the trap of
God being made in our image – instead of the other way around. We
relate to God in our human understanding, putting God in a box that
he simply can't be contained in! The hope is that our sense of God
will grow as expansive as our God is. Each tiny
conception
gets obliterated as we discover more and more the God who is always
greater.
I'd
like to read a story for you from Tattoos on the Heart, a book by
Jesuit Gregory Boyle who began Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, a
gang intervention program in the gang capital of the world. Pastor G,
as the homies call him, spends a great deal of time visiting with
incarcerated youth – conducting services and just sitting and
talking with these kids on the margins of society. In this instance
he is at Camp Paige, a detention facility and is meeting with Rigo, a
fifteen year old about to make his first communion. They have about
ten minutes to kill and Pastor G asks him about his life and family.
He gets around to asking about Rigo's father.
“Oh,”
Rigo says, “he's a heroin addict and never really been in my life.
Used to always beat me. Fact, he's in prison right now, barely ever
lived with us.” Then something seemed to snap in him, an image
brings him to attention.
Rigo
continues, “I think I was in the fourth grade...I came home one
day, sent home in the middle of the day. Got into some trouble at
school Can't remember what. When I got home, my jefito was there. He
was hardly ever there. My dad says, “Why they send you home?” And
cuz my dad always beat me, I said. “If I tell you, promise you
won't hit me?” He just said, “I'm your father. 'course I'm not
gonna hit you.” So I told him.
Rigo
is caught short in the telling. He bgins to cry, and in moments he's
wailing and rocking back and forth. Father Greg put his arms around
him. He was inconsolable. When Rigo is able to speak, and barely so,
he says only, “He beat me with a pipe...with...a pipe.” When Rigo
composes himself, Father Greg asked, “and your mother?” He points
some distance across the room at a tiny woman standing by the gym's
entrance.
“That's
her over there.” He pauses for a beat. “There's no one like her.”
Again, some image appears in his mind and a thought occurs to him.
“I've been locked up for more than a year and a half. She comes to
see me every Sunday. You know how many buses she takes to come here?
To see my sorry self?”
Then
he sobs again with the same ferocity as before. When he reclaims
breath he gasps through his tears. “Seven buses. She takes...
seven...buses. Imagine.”
Imagine.
The expansive heart of this God – greater than God – who takes
seven buses, just to arrive at us. Our image of who God is and what's
on God's mind is limited to our understanding. Regardless, it doesn't
change who God is – the wild, untamed God who created the universe
can't be shut in our little box!
So
when we feel discouraged or overwhelmed. When we feel at the end of
our rope – God is there. Scripture promises that he will never
leave us or forsake us. If we don't feel God's presence – it
doesn't mean that he has left us to fend for ourselves. Usually it
means we have fallen into the trap of humanity...and are relying on
our understanding. We feel a distance that is not of God's making,
but our own. All we have to do is turn back toward him, humble
ourselves and recognize that we are not God.
I
love the way the Eugene Peterson's The Message phrases Romans
8:26-27: Meanwhile,
the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right
alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray,
it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer
out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better
than we know ourselves, knows our condition, and keeps us present
before God.
The
kingdom of heaven is like an elephant. And as I grow in understanding
with every passing day help me to remember that there is one God –
who loves us beyond measure – and I'm. Not. Him.
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