July 30, 2023 Ninth Sunday After Pentecost The text is Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52.

 -o0o-

³¹[Jesus] put before [the crowds] another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field;³²it 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.”
 ³³He 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.”
 ⁴⁴“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.
 ⁴⁵“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
 ⁴⁷“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 ⁵¹“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” ⁵²And 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.”

-o0o-

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

For the last two Sundays Jesus has been explaining through parables, what “the kingdom of heaven is like”.  Two weeks ago, Jesus began with a metaphor that compared the kingdom to the scattering of seeds on differing surfaces and how each flourished or did not.  Last week the theme was again on farming, as Jesus told the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds.

This morning, we listen in as Jesus once again describes the coming kingdom using five rather different parables; and keeping with the prior theme, the first one centers on the sowing of seeds.  To ensure that the message is understood by all his listeners the next four parables depart from the agricultural theme; these refer to yeast, buried treasure, a pearl, and a net filled with fish.  Not content with limiting his teaching only to farmers, Jesus now offers parables which focus on vocations that include baker, landowner, merchant, and fisherman.  And in yet another difference from the verses we’ve been examining the last two weeks, this morning the disciples don’t ask Jesus for additional explanation, and he doesn’t offer any.  So then, that rather leaves it up to us to try to discern what Jesus was attempting to get his listeners to understand regarding the nature of the kingdom of God.

So, since Jesus was content to let the parables speak for themselves, maybe we should take just a moment to dig a little deeper into them, to discover for ourselves what his first century listeners probably understood without any additional explanation.  The Parable of the Mustard Seed would have been obvious in Jesus’ time, but perhaps not quite so for us today.  I actually have a small jar of McCormick Mustard Seeds that I keep in the office, and as I showed the kids this morning, they are, in fact quite small.  But not having ever seen a mature mustard plant I can only trust Jesus when he tells us that they are able to grow to quite a large size.  But, being the tech nerd that I am, I did what everyone does today when we want current information; I Googled it.  It turns out that Jesus was being very accurate with those he was preaching to 2,000 years ago; mustard plants can reach twenty feet in height; and I have seen for myself how small their seeds are.  So Jesus’ description of the kingdom of heaven being like a mustard seed, that is something extremely large and flourishing starting from a tiny beginning, is in truth a completely accurate description for us, even today.

The parable of the woman adding yeast to flour to make bread, well that one is a bit more familiar to us.  As a matter of fact I helped my wife make a batch of pizza dough just last week; albeit, it was in the bread-maker and the yeast we used came from a glass jar.

Similar to the parable of the mustard seed, even a tiny amount of yeast can result in a very large amount of flour being leavened, resulting in hundreds of loaves of risen bread.  Again, at first glance this represents something very small resulting in a much larger outcome.  Yet again, there may be more to this parable than is obvious from when looked at from today’s perspective.  In Jesus’ time yeast was not the pristine powdered product we use today.  What was considered “yeast” back then was, in fact a lump of moldy, spoiled bread, that contained some of the yeast spores left over from the most recently baked loaf.  Some portion was kept on-hand from each batch of dough and served as the starter for subsequent beadmaking.  So both these parables, speaking to farmers and bakers make Jesus’ point that the kingdom of heaven, while enormous and all-consuming, has its beginning from something small and nearly inconsequential.  And in the case of the yeast, its beginning was rather repulsive.

The next two parables focus on the kingdom of heaven as something of incomparable worth.  In the first one, the landowner buys a plot in which a great treasure has been hidden.  The fortune in the field is so valuable that he sells everything he owns in order to possess it.  Next we read that a merchant has discovered a pearl of such great beauty and value that he too sells everything he has in order that he might gain possession of it.  Landowners and pearl merchants have now been included in those whom Jesus intends to impart the knowledge of God’s kingdom.  So, Jesus has addressed people from just about every walk of life, preaching to them about the coming kingdom of heaven and what it will be like.  And while the descriptions were many and varied, the essence of what Jesus was teaching is that God’s kingdom will come to fullness from a small beginning; the impending fruition of the heavenly realm is already underway; and once realized, it will be beyond value.

All this is well and good, if we happened to be living in Israel in the first century.  For some of us have been known to plant a garden, but most of us don’t earn our living as full-time farmers.  Many of us, myself included have been known to bait a hook and spend some time fishing, but we’re not likely to be found mending our nets on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

And it’s a safe bet that none of us has sold everything we owned to buy a piece of property in search of buried treasure, or leveraged our entire business for the sake of a single valuable gem.  And while we can nonetheless understand these parables of 2,000 years ago, I wonder how Jesus would describe the kingdom of heaven if he were preaching to us, today.  What would be the cultural or vocational topics he would use as the basis for his “the kingdom of heaven is like…” parables?  He wouldn’t be addressing fishermen, shepherds, farmers, or pearl merchants; Jesus would be directing his teaching to us and I can’t help but wonder what he might say.  I actually came up with one or two that are relevant, as least for me.  “The kingdom of heaven is like a driver who lets you merge your car in front of theirs”.  Or, “the kingdom of heaven is like going for an entire day without getting a spam call about your car’s extended warranty”.  I offer these as rather frivolous examples, but the underlying question remains; what do we suppose Jesus would say to us today to ensure that we understood nature of the coming kingdom?

We’re all a bunch of Lutherans and I’m pretty sure we have a good grasp on what it is we believe about the promise of the heavenly kingdom to come.  And we’re also quite certain of the ways in which we are called to serve others in this world.  But I come back to the idea as I wonder how we might imagine Jesus using modern parables to describe God’s realm.  So, I will leave you with this exercise; over the next few days, try to imagine what Jesus would say to you in this time and place that would confirm your idea of what the kingdom is like.  And perhaps, even more importantly, what would you say to Jesus if he asked you to describe God’s kingdom to him?                    

Will you pray with me?  Good, and gracious, and holy God, help us to understand your will for the coming of the kingdom of heaven.  Guide us as we strive to make others aware of the joy to come in the heavenly realm.  And we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, the One who challenges us to live in ways that point to the kingdom-to-come by our words and actions in the here and now.

Amen

God is Good, all the time.  All the time, God is Good.  Amen.