November 9, 2014

This Sunday I will be preaching on Matthew 13:44-50, which is a passage that encompasses three parables. In the first, Jesus compares the Kingdom to a treasure hidden in a field. In the second, he compares it to a merchant in search of fine pearls. In the third, he compares it to a net that was thrown into the sea and catches fish of every kind.

In the first two stories, the main character sells everything in order to acquire the object they’re seeking. There are a couple of points worth reflecting on…first that the treasure and the pearl are of seemingly infinite value (some people say pearls were regarded as more valuable than gold in the first century). At the very least we can say that the men in these stories value the goods as worth more than the sum of their current holdings.

The Kingdom of Heaven, when we encounter it, it is the invaluable treasure we stumble upon as we go about our business.  We would be fools to ignore it, and thieves if we took it improperly. Owning this treasure requires a total investment, and marks a true change in how we then live in relation to it.

The Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus goes on to say, is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. It’s interesting to me that we so often read this parable in the same manner as the last…the kingdom is the pearl, and we are the merchants, and Jesus is calling again for complete, total investment. But I don’t think that’s what the parable says.

We are the Pearl. The Kingdom of Heaven is the merchant, who seeks us, finds us, and bestows upon us infinite value and infinite worth, stopping at nothing (not even death) to give us a place of belonging and redemption, a place where our true value is simply enjoyed by the One who made the purchase.

It’s also like a net that catches all kinds of fish…both the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean. There are elements of attraction to the kingdom for all of humanity, all get ‘trapped’ in the net of God’s reign…but there is also an element of separation, or sorting out. Not all will be found to be ‘worthy’ when time is fulfilled. This isn’t a statement of angry judgement. I think it’s more like a wildlife conservationist might sort the good from the bad to try to bring healing to the whole ecosystem. There will be those who belong, and those who don’t belong when the kingdom comes in fullness.

You’re invited to come and join the conversation. I hope to see you here!

Sunday, November 2, 2014

This Sunday we will be looking at Matthew 13:31-35. The title of my sermon is “Mustard, Yeast, and the Foundation of the World”. Both of these parables use natural processes in our physical world to describe underlying, or foundational, spiritual realities upon which we build our lives. Just a simple, small seed contains the potential for growth into a comparatively huge mustard plant…and we all know that just a little bit of yeast can work its way through and leaven a whole batch of dough.

This is what seeds and yeast do…seeds grow, and yeast ‘leavens’. Their impact upon their surroundings is wrapped up in their nature, and the end result is many times the original input.

The Kingdom is like that. Like the mustard seed, it starts small, seemingly insignificant. Yet it grows strong and tall with a tenacity that makes it just about impossible to eradicate from a field where it was once planted.

Likewise, the parable of the yeast describes a process by which something small works its way through a large amount of flour, until all of it was leavened.

This parable is particularly shocking, first of all because Jesus is likening the kingdom to a process that was relegated to women at the time (and isn’t Kingdom building a manly pursuit?), secondly yeast was apparently seen as an unclean thing (back then it was basically fermented (rotting) old dough), third, because the ‘Three Measures’ of flour is more than a bushel of flour!

This woman isn’t just interested in feeding herself or her family.

She was wanting to feed the village!

If you’ve ever mixed bread dough without a mixer, it’s clear that she’s not afraid to roll up her sleeves and work hard towards that end. Mixing that much dough by hand would half kill me!

The Kingdom of God, like mustard, will be welcomed by some and not by others. It starts small, like any seed does, grows, multiplies, and eventually benefits all who are connected to it. Like ancient Yeast, it might offend our sensibilities, it might show up where we least expect it, and it might require some hard work to establish its presence…but the end result will blow our minds in scope, for it will lead to an abundance that’s hard to imagine.

These parables lay the foundation for the New World Order that Jesus brings. It starts small, just the seed, just the spore, but it goes to work on the world that hosts it, and brings about change on a magnitude we can hardly fathom.