St. George's Episcopal Church
Roseburg, Oregon
The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 12A
24 July 2005
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Genesis 29:15-28
Psalm 105:1-11, 45b
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
The Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA
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.” (Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52)
The Kingdom of God is like “Yellow”
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector
The replication of DNA in eukaryotic cells involves a series of proteins and enzymes whose energy-dependent activities are coordinated in a sequential way. The first step is the binding of the polymerase to the DNA like a magnet to the refrigerator door. The second step is like a wedge being driven between two rails to unwind and separate them. The third is continuous synthesis on one strand like an old railroad hand car going down a piece of track. On the other strand it is discontinuous like a scribe copying one page from a book one after another. Finally there is an enzyme like a glue bottle that sticks the short pieces together. Have you understood all of this?
You have a puzzled look on your faces. When I taught at university and at medical school, I used to scan the classroom looking for faces like yours that betrayed bewilderment or confusion.
I imagine the disciples had similar looks on their faces when Jesus finished telling them that the kingdom of God was like a mustard seed. “Peter, do you get that?” whispered Andrew. “Yeah, sure. Perfectly clear.” replied Peter, shaking his head from side to side.
Jesus, seeing the bewilderment on their faces again, did what any good teacher would do. He tried a different tack: “The Kingdom,” said Jesus, is like some yeast.” “Yeast?” asked an astonished Bartholomew. “But, Rabbi,” he continued, “yeast is a corrupt thing. We know this. Moses taught us to get rid of it at Passover. Everybody knows that not having leaven stands for what is Holy.” Jesus shook his head, realizing that his disciples didn’t realize that he was trying to reverse the customary associations, so that they would realize that the Kingdom would be something different, unexpected, and beyond earthly expectation.
So he tried again saying, “Heaven is like treasure buried in a field, which someone found and reburied, and who then seeks to buy the field.” “But wait, Jesus!” Thomas interrupts. “By covering up the treasure and buying the field, the person deceives the owner! This is like that story you told us about the shrewd manager who swindles his master in order to provide for his own future!” Flabbergasted, Thomas asked, “Heaven is a place full of swindlers and thieves?” Not answering, Jesus went on to tell them that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a priceless pearl that when found by a merchant, he sells everything to buy it. “Wait, Jesus, this makes no sense!” interjected John. “Why in Heaven’s name would a merchant sell what he already has in order to acquire something with equal value? The net gain is zero!”
In the 1985 movie Mask, Eric Stolz played the part of “Rocky,” a boy with craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, a deforming condition that left his head and face with a grotesque mask-like appearance. “Rocky and his mother lived in a pleasant bungalow in a fairly decent, lower-middle-class neighborhood of Los Angeles. While his mom was out hell-raising with her biker friends, who looked tough but were less intimidating than the Seven Dwarfs, Rocky went to school by day, where he was an honors student. Rocky had three goals in life – to find a girl who loves him, to get his mother off drugs, and to make a motorcycle tour of Europe.”[1]
At camp, Rocky met a pretty blonde girl named Diana played by Laura Dern. Diana was blind from birth. As they became acquainted and started to fall in love, Rocky tried desperately to describe colors to her. Imagine the difficulty of describing the appearance of a color – especially to someone who can’t see. Eventually Rocky, who is a very bright young man, got an idea.
He carefully and slowly brushed Diana’s cheek with a wisp of cotton and said, “This is what white feels like.” “I see!” Diana exclaims. “Now this is blue,” Rocky tells her as he puts an ice cube in her hand.” “Yes!” she exclaims in total comprehension. And over again, Rocky uses Diana’s other senses to help her comprehend the incomprehensible.
Heaven is like a mustard seed, said Jesus. What did he mean? If the disciples were bewildered by Jesus’ metaphor, imagine how bewildering the image of a mustard plant is today to people like you and me who only know that mustard comes in several different varieties in jars or cans. So, can we buy heaven in a can? No. All Jesus was doing was what Jesus always did: teach. This time he used scriptural references to say something about God’s desire to reconcile creation to Godself.
According to the Jesus Seminar, that group of New Testament Scholars who sought to find the authentic Jesus, the metaphors of the mustard seed, the yeast, the hidden treasure, and the pearl are very likely Jesus’ own words or words close to his. Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to the tiny seed of the mustard plant. And although mustard is actually a shrub, in telling this story of Jesus, Matthew (and Luke) first described it as the largest of all garden plants and then as a tree! The expansion of the image in the gospel texts was very likely influenced by the figure of the mighty cedar of Lebanon, which in Ezekiel (17:22-23) and Daniel (4:12, 20-22) became a metaphor for a towering empire. To Matthew and to Luke, the little mustard seed becomes an apocalyptic tree that will span between heaven and earth, providing shelter for all the peoples of the earth.”[2]
Is that what Jesus really meant by the metaphor of the mustard seed? It is impossible to say. When Jesus compared the Kingdom to leaven, was he referring to the uncontrollable, organic growth of the Kingdom? Or was it a reference to the mystery of the fermentation process that produces dough? Or did it have to do with the yeast being “hidden” but still active going about its work?
That is the beauty and wisdom of Jesus’ teachings. Instead of leaving us with contextually-based lessons, he left us with hard to understand parables. But therein lies the genius. “Parables really don’t have a definitive interpretation. The whole reason for using parables at all is that they cannot be reduced to one thing, just as we cannot reduce a love poem to a single prosaic sentence and still have the essence and mystery of love, or the majesty of the poem. Parables are art, and like paintings, like poetry, like sculpture, like music, they cannot be reduced to one straightforward, dogmatic thing.”[3] Through parables, Jesus guides us toward a path of discernment toward conviction and belief. Through parables and other stories, Jesus makes us think. He makes us toss them around in our heads; he makes us work through our own doubts to arrive at an answer that becomes the foundation for our own certainty and our own actions.
As for me, I firmly believe that Jesus looked at his world and saw a place where people were classified into socio-economic groups, family groups, religious groups, and in which there were overlapping and kingdoms fighting for political control. People of all sorts were regarded as unimportant, unworthy, or unclean. Almost everyone was, to someone, an enemy. And into this mess stepped Jesus, who saw a simple truth: No matter whether we humans consider others to be wheat like us or weeds like them, God’s unbounded love embraced them all.
I believe that Jesus saw that God’s kingdom was a small seed – present in everyone – waiting to grow. In Jesus’ day it must have seemed hidden like the yeast in the dough. But by the time Matthew and Luke were writing their stories, the churches were growing into mustard plants, and spreading like rising dough. And the Kingdom will continue to grow into something magnificent, as long as we can continue to live into the commandment to love one another as we love ourselves.
I think Jesus did not see the Kingdom as a geographic or physical thing. It was not a destination on a map – spiritual or otherwise. It was something that transcended all earthly kingdoms, ideas, political and social schemes, and value structures.
The fact that Jesus chose so many metaphors that involved seeds and plants, says to me that the Kingdom is an organic, living thing, present from the very beginning as integral to the fabric of creation. It is not so much of a place as it is a state of mind and an attitude of the heart. It was planted by God, and it will grow. But it will grow every so much larger and better if we actively nourish it, and if we stop hindering its growth in ourselves or others by our own foolish or deliberate actions.
So what is the kingdom of heaven like to you? What can you do to partner with God to nurture the Kingdom in your own life, your family, your community, and your church?
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Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were lovely, and Rachel was graceful and beautiful. Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” So Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. (Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid. ) When morning came, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” Laban said, “This is not done in our country--giving the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.” Jacob did so, and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife.
1 O give thanks to the LORD, call on his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples.
2 Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wonderful works.
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
4 Seek the LORD and his strength;
seek his presence continually.
5 Remember the wonderful works he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,
6 O offspring of his servant Abraham,
children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is the LORD our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He is mindful of his covenant forever,
of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant that he made with Abraham,
his sworn promise to Isaac,
10 which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as your portion for an inheritance.”
45b Praise the LORD!
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that 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.
Jesus 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.”
O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
[1] Vincent Canby. “‘Mask,’ Bogdanovich: Tale of a Rare Disease.” Movie Review. The New York Times. March 8, 1985. Accessed on line 13 July 2005 (click here).
[2] Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and The Jesus Seminar. The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus New Translation and Commentary. (New York, NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997), 194.
[3] Joshua Varner. Quoted in Synthesis. Proper 12A, Boyds, MD: Sedgwick Publishing Co. July 24, 2005.
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14 July 2005
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