Matthew , The Rev. Dr. Mary Abram; St. James' Episcopal Church, Pewee Valley KY Morning Prayer: July 27, 2014

Transcription

1 Matthew , The Rev. Dr. Mary Abram; St. James' Episcopal Church, Pewee Valley KY Morning Prayer: July 27, 2014 Long ago I saw a movie about a town where all the people were blind. I was very young so I don t remember the name or any of the actors. To me it was scary but I don t think it was meant to be. When I was young many things were scary, Alice in Wonderland was a horror story. I don t remember all of the details of this movie but I remember that a couple of strangers accidentally stumbled into this town. At one point they were trying to warn the people of some danger. Something that the strangers could see but the villagers who were blind did not know was there. The villagers asked how the strangers how knew about the danger. The strangers tried to tell them what that they saw the danger but the villagers had no words for seeing did not even understand the concept of vision. Without a common vocabulary or common past experience it was impossible to help them understand how they knew that danger was present. It is difficult to talk about things no one else has experienced because their minds cannot grasp those concepts. Today in Matthew we hear that Jesus has been talking about the Kingdom of God and trying to explain it to his disciples. He talked about the kingdom of God, or as Matthew calls it, the kingdom of heaven, more than any other single subject. Yet, it remained an elusive concept. The Scriptures leave us

2 with the impression that the kingdom is so magnificent that it is more than we can grasp. Today in Matthew Jesus is using his customary method of teaching by telling parables. He draws pictures of it by comparing the kingdom to ordinary things we can understand. He delivers five, rapid fire metaphors that give us an impression of God s kingdom. He says the kingdom is like a mustard seed, the kingdom is like yeast, the kingdom is like a buried treasure, the kingdom is like a valuable pearl, the kingdom is like a fishing net. The first time we hear about the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew s gospel is from John the Baptist. He s out preaching in the wilderness, baptizing and telling people to Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near. Jesus own preaching ministry begins after the arrest of John. Matthew tells us From that time on, Jesus began to proclaim, Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven has drawn near. We cannot understand or know every aspect of the kingdom of heaven but Jesus does give us some clues, some views of what it is like through these parables. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Mustard bushes were like kudzu in our day. They were trash plants which people hated to get mixed up in their seed. The seeds were so small though that they couldn t really see them within the good seeds to take them out as they planted their crops. All of a sudden they would see one start to grow up in their fields. But this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. From something so small it

3 can grow into a bush that can be a home for birds. To help us grasp what Jesus is saying, we need to remember that the early followers of Jesus were subjected to Roman occupation. The Roman Empire was brutal and suffocating. In ancient times, the Old Testament prophets had envisioned a day when God s kingdom would be present on earth. They envisioned a day when swords would be beaten into plowshares, the oppressed would be set free and justice would reign. Jesus expanded on that and said the kingdom is a place where the hungry will be fed, the ill will be healed, the weak will be cared for and the repentant will be forgiven. He said that God s Kingdom was drawing near. It may as small as a mustard seed but over time it will grow into something immense. The kingdom of heaven for us may start off small in our hearts but it can grow into something large and substantial. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast. What is interesting is that the word yeast is used in many of our modern English translations, but if you go back to the King James Version it is translated as leaven, which is closer to the Greek word used by Matthew. Modern day translators may use the word yeast because we are more familiar with it. We know it comes in packets or jar from the grocery store and we add it to flour and water to make bread. But in Biblical times they did not have a Krogers to go to. If they wanted to make fluffy bread they had to create leaven. To do that they had to let a piece of bread spoil for just the right amount of time. If it didn t spoil long enough it wouldn t make the bread rise and if it spoiled too long it could become poison and make people sick.

4 Other times that Jesus talks about leaven he uses it as a negative term. He tells people to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. But here it is positive. It only takes a little leaven, or yeast, to make the dough rise. Yeast does not work instantly; it is a time-consuming process. For a long time it goes unnoticed. It s hidden in the flour. In a similar way, God s kingdom was hidden from the eyes of the Roman rulers. They do not recognize it. Yet, as the yeast transforms the flour and creates bread, the coming of God s kingdom transforms the world. Like the parable of the mustard seed, this parable gave hope to followers of Jesus. Although nothing seems to be happening and our efforts seem to be achieving nothing, our work is having a gradual impact, slowly changing the world as more and more people adopted Jesus way of loving our neighbor as yourselves. It only takes a small spark of the Holy Spirit to change us. That is what the kingdom of heaven is like. It only takes a little, a little yeast, a little seed, to make a huge transformation. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field or a merchant looking for fine pearls. In both of these parables someone finds something of great value and then they joyfully sell everything they have in order to get it. People often found treasure in a field because instead of hiding money under one s mattress they buried it in a field. It was a common practice that whatever treasure was found in your field was yours so this is why the man sells everything to buy the field. The kingdom of heaven is worth a treasure

5 so great, that we have to be willing to give everything else away to get it. Jesus is saying that once we grasp the value of God s kingdom, we will go to extreme measures to obtain it. Nothing compares to God s kingdom, but it requires a wholehearted commitment, it requires that we will risk everything in order to be a part of it. The kingdom of heaven is like a net. When using nets for fishing junk fish are always going to be caught along with the good ones. Someone must go though that catch and throw out the bad fish. The kingdom of heaven is like that. A net full of good fish and bad fish and in the end the angels will come and make the separation. Jesus is again contrasting the Roman Empire with God s Empire. The Roman Empire relied on propaganda, oppression, cruelty, greed, violence and fear. God s Empire relies on truth, justice, compassion, generosity, peace and hope. One kingdom will bring you death; the other one life. The kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old. God wants to share God s goodness with everyone. God wants us to experience God s glory and awesomeness. God wants to share everything with us if we are ready to open our eyes to it. All of these parables have something in common. They are examples of everyday life. The common, the normal, the stuff that is right around us and within our grasp. The kingdom of God is near. It is around us. It is active. It is in our midst right now. We spend so much time looking for God in the

6 extraordinary that we forget we can find God at work in the most ordinary places. Two weeks ago I spent the week at All Saints with the primary campers. Ages from 7 to 9. It was great and we spent time every morning talking about where we had seen, heard and felt God the day before. We saw God in the flowers, the sun, the clouds, and bugs. I told them that I saw God in some poison ivy and it reminded me that some things are not good for me and I should stay away from them. We felt God when the wind blew and when we received hugs and we heard God when the birds sang, the wind moved the leaves and in the kid s laughter. We found God in each other as we met new friends throughout the week. I want to close with a short story that I read to them one night at our evening worship time. Its called God Speak to me The man whispered, God, speak to me. And a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear. So the man yelled, :God, speak to me! Thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen. The man looked around and said, God, let me see you. A star shone brightly. But he noticed it not. And the man shouted, God, show me a miracle. And a life was born. But the man was unaware. So, the man cried out in despair, Touch me, God, and let me know that you are here!

7 Whereupon God reached down and touched the man. But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on. May our eyes be opened to see, hear and feel the kingdom of heaven around us in the mustard seeds, the treasures, the yeast, the pearls, and in the good fish. AMEN resources used sermon-is-like_22.html