Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Rez is a community where Jesus welcomes, shapes, and sends disciples for the good of our neighborhood. No matter where you are in life, this is a place for you.
Life Together In The Goodness Of God
It's been a little over a year since y'all welcomed me here to Rez. To be exact it's been one year, three weeks and four days but who's counting? And maybe you've picked up on something I do when I preach. No, I'm not talking about the constant sweating or the constant movements which I'm working on and I think I'm getting better at. And it's not the fact that I think I talk too fast, I'm from the East Coast, can't help it. No, it's that I like to go back and quickly recap the readings from the previous couple of weeks to sort of set the stage for the reading at hand. And though we are at the end of Matthew 13 for today's reading, there is and there is a very quick recap coming. What I noticed is that we skipped all of Matthew chapter 12. A few weeks ago we got the end of Matthew chapter 11 with Jesus inviting us to take on his yoke, calling it easy and his burden light. Then the following week we're at the beginning of Matthew 13 just skipping right over chapter 12. So of course I had to go back and read chapter 12 since like a good Episcopalian, I cannot recall chapter and verse. And though there's some good stuff in chapter 12, I encourage you to go back and revisit it. It's basically just Jesus and the Pharisees arguing with each other. It's where Jesus calls the Pharisees, you brood of vipers. And there are a few healings in there sprinkled in. And it was reading chapter 12 that made me think of the different roles and identities we embody. I, for example, I'm not just a priest. I am also a husband, a brother, an uncle and a nephew, a friend, and I'm most proud, a dog dad. In this way, we are all like Jesus. In Jesus, we not only get a great orator and debater and preacher, but we also get a redeemer, a healer, a comforter, and an example on how to live out God's will for us. But today, today, y'all, we get Jesus the teacher. And like any good teacher, Jesus is using different examples, different stories that may resonate in order to make his point. And today we get five different parables in which Jesus is describing the kingdom of heaven. And rather than diving into just one of them, I mean, how can I choose? Let's look at all of them because I think they all make the same basic point, that the kingdom of God is both unexpected and near, expansive and yet full of tiny acts, hidden and yet right in front of us in plain sight. The parable of the mustard seed is the perfect example. Here we see Jesus teaching that the kingdom comes forth with just a small act of faith. Now, I'm not a gardener, but I imagine planting anything and expecting it to grow takes some kind of faith, but it also takes some kind of work. And what we are being invited to notice is that small acts of kindness bring forth the kingdom of God. When we love our neighbors, when we help the poor, when we stand up to injustice, or simply offer a kind and loving word to someone, we are bringing the kingdom near a kingdom in which we are all invited. The next one about the yeast, now this one is actually my favorite of the five. It's the one I was going to initially preach, and that is because, one, the parable centers a woman. In all of Matthew 13, we see sowers and fishermen, field workers, treasure hunters, and merchants, but here, here we get a woman doing the domestic work of making bread. Now, in Jewish culture of the day, yeast was often used as a symbol of corruption, and a woman at the center of a parable would be quite provocative at the time, but here we see Jesus turn that all around and use the woman and the yeast as the spirit working in all of us. Quietly, slowly, the yeast, the spirit that is in us, shows itself in those kind acts I just mentioned, like the woman working and kneading the dough with her hands to make something new. The spirit is working in all of us and calls us to action and making the kingdom come near. We then get the parable of the found treasure, which pairs nicely with the merchant finding the pearl. Now, here what I think Jesus is teaching us is that when we see the kingdom, when we notice the kingdom come near, when we see God at work in our world, when we notice the spirit moving in and through us, we do anything to keep that. See, I think here the treasure that is found, the pearl, is not actually the kingdom. Rather, the treasure and the pearl is you. It's all of you. It's me. We are the treasure that Jesus searches out. We are the pearls that God values and delights in. We are the ones filled with God's love. Grace and mercy. And when we show that out in the world, God's kingdom does come very near. And of course, we cannot have a parable about the kingdom without a fishing example. And this one, I have to say, this one is a little upsetting to me. You see, I think Jesus is correct when he points out that we are all part of creation. We are all part of the kingdom. God seeks us all. And we are all invited into the kingdom. We are all invited to show that love, grace, and mercy that we are all filled with. But I think Jesus uses a little heavy handedness to help illustrate that we have a choice to make. And it doesn't mean we are to be perfect far from it. I think we are being invited to strive to bring the kingdom near. See, I didn't grow up in one of those fire and brimstone churches where virtually everything you do is seen as a betrayal to God. No, I grew up looking at that cross, striving to live in a way Jesus taught and failing miserably all the time. But getting up and knowing that God is calling me, calling all of us into God's kingdom, I invite you to hear this story of the good and bad fish, not as damnation or condemnation, but rather as an invitation into God's kingdom. Now, I know I just threw five little sermons at you, but I want to bring them all together by pointing out what two things these parables all have in common. Did you notice that in the parables, the kingdom of heaven is hidden in some way? The mustard seed goes in the ground, the yeast is mixed in with three measures of flour, the treasure is hidden in the field, the pearl is thrown in with others, even the fish lurked below the surface of the water waiting to be caught. In each of these, it takes a little work to bring forth the kingdom, the work of love and grace and spirit-filled actions. The kingdom bursts forth when we tend to our faith, tend to what God has gifted us. And it is faith that all these stories share. You have to have faith to know that that mustard seed will grow into something so expansive the birds of the air will nest in it. You have to have faith to know that yeast will do its work, transforming the flour into delicious bread. You have to have faith when you go looking for a treasure or a pearl to know you will find the precious gift that you seek. You have to have faith when you cast out that net that you will reap the bounty of the seed. We have to have faith to know the kingdom of heaven is very near. So as we take our final look at Matthew 13 for a few years at least, what we see is that Jesus is calling us to faithfulness in God, faithfulness in God's kingdom and faithfulness in each other. As New Testament scholar Michael Morrison puts it, quote, through faith we enter the kingdom of God and through faithfulness we stay in the kingdom of God and through faith we bear the fruit for the kingdom. It is our faith that leads us to love our neighbors, to offer kindness, to show the love, grace and mercy in each of us, to all of us. It is our faith that reminds us that God loves and desires us, all of us, no matter our faults, our misdeeds or our shortcomings. It is our faith that recognizes the radical and immeasurable love Jesus has for us, that is open for all of us, that we are being called to show that radical love in the world. It is our faith that keeps us coming back here, knowing that the water right there and the meal that we are about to eat is not just something, but is everything. It is our faith that shows God's kingdom to the world, a kingdom we are all invited to enter. As the Apostle Paul reminds us in this letter to the Romans, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And may it be so. Amen.