I guess the folks who lived in Jesus’ day
weren’t all that different from folks today. A lot of them would put on their “Make
Israel Great Again” ball caps in hope that this Jesus guy would turn out to be
the kind of Messiah who would restore their idea of what the Kingdom of God
should be—a mighty Utopia made up of people just like them. No Romans or other
gentiles. It would be feared for its military might by other nations, and have a
booming stock market.
Jesus had to set them straight about this.
That’s what the parables were all about.
In the selection from Matthew’s gospel
assigned in the RCL for Pentecost 8, Year A (Matthew: 13: 31-33, 44-52) Jesus
gives us five similes for what God’s Kingdom is really like. Each of these examples has a slightly different
flavor, and I’ll bet that Jesus used them on different occasions to illustrate
different lessons. Our evangelist Matthew, however, has lumped them all
together in one discourse. If I were to parse each of them you’d probably fall
asleep before you finished reading this post, so I’m just going to pick two and
save the other three for some other time. Are you okay with that? Good. I will
say first off that all five parables have something in common: Unlike the other
parables we’ve been reading during this Pentecost season, these five don’t come
with a spiffy explanation. It looks like Jesus is making us work to figure out their meaning. So
here’s my take on the mustard seed and the fish net.
The mustard seed is—duh!—something small
which turns into something bigger. But how much bigger? Jesus says it grows
into the “greatest of shrubs.” (v. 32) [i] Greatest of shrubs? That’s like saying the tallest
of midgets. Wouldn’t Jesus make a stronger point if he referenced an acorn
growing into a mighty cedar of Lebanon? Perhaps, but size doesn’t matter here. Quantity
is a human value. God doesn’t give a rip about it because God is bigger than
anything we can imagine. You can’t impress God with magnitude. God is magnitude. To God, the tallest and
most majestic tree in the forest is no more precious than the bush which
produces a great condiment for your hotdog and provides shelter for some of God’s
creatures.
Our congregation in Northeast Philly
operates on pretty paltry resources—just faith the size of a mustard seed. We’re
not a 3,000 seat mega-church with a TV station and world-wide ministry. But we
are no less a manifestation of God’s Kingdom. In our “branches” is shelter for
all kinds of “birds”—alcoholics seeking to recover, Haitian immigrants who can’t
afford a worship space of their own, LGBTQ people, and the otherwise homeless
birds who find a temporary nest in our facility through our partnership with
Interfaith Hospitality Network. We may not be producing mustard, but with all
of the tomatoes harvested each summer in the organic garden we grow for our
food pantry we could make one boatload of
ketchup! We know that God’s glory can be seen in what the world sees as
insignificant.
Now, about that fishnet (v.47). God’s
kingdom is full of lots of stuff—some good, some not so good. Dragging a
fishnet along the bottom of the lake can get you lots of things. You can get
fish to sell or fry up yourself. You can also collect gross stuff like slimy
eels and gooey mollusks and old Styrofoam cups, beer cans, hubcaps, and used
disposable diapers. There will be some crap in that net which will be just down
right unpleasant and smelly. But the net holds all of it. There’s good and bad in God’s Kingdom. There’s virtue
and sin, joy and suffering, fulfillment and emptiness—but it’s all still God’s
net. Eventually, the useless, rotten stuff will get sorted out (like this
COVID-19 pandemic!). For now, though, we live with it all, secure in the
knowledge that God is wrapped around us, holding everything together.
We really miss the point if we think God
only shows up in the glorious, the successful, or the “feel-good” moments. God surrounds us in the smelly garbage moments,
too. God is present in our small and humble efforts. God’s Kingdom doesn’t require
awe-inspiring deeds on our behalf, just simple deeds done consistently in faith
and trust. Luther reminded us that when we pray the Lord’s Prayer and pray “Thy
Kingdom come,” we’re really asking for God’s Kingdom to come and reveal itself
so we can see it and be strengthened by it, for it surely comes whether we pray
for it or not. God’s Kingdom is eternal. That means we’re living in it now.
Peace and joy be with you this week.
Thanks again for stopping by!
[i] If
you want to get fancy about this the Greek calls it the greatest of lacanon (pronounced
lachanon) which literally translates as “herb.” Jesus says it grows into a “tree,”
but the word we’re translating as “tree” in Greek is dendron (dendron), which can mean a tree
but can also mean a bush like a rose bush. Face it. Mustard just doesn’t grow
that big.
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