The Kingdom of God is Like (A June Sermon Series on the Parables of Jesus) Matthew 13:1-3, June 3, 2012

Transcription

1 The Kingdom of God is Like (A June Sermon Series on the Parables of Jesus) Matthew 13:1-3, June 3, 2012 For the month of June, I am going to preach, and we are going to play in the sandbox of the parables of Jesus. Next Sunday I will preach on what is commonly known as the parable of the Prodigal Son. June 17 th will be on the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, and June 24 th will be on the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids. Today is a little different. The scripture is from Matthew s gospel, and instead of a parable, what I am reading are Jesus words to his disciples about why he teaches with parables. Listen with me for the word of God +++ That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables Then the disciples came and asked him, Why do you speak to them in parables? He answered, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand. With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, 1

2 and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it. +++ In 1884, a schoolteacher named Edwin A. Abbott published a novel satirizing Victorian culture in England called Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. The story is about a two dimensional world populated by geometric figures. The narrator of the story is a square, whose name is Square. Square describes what life is like in the two dimensional world that he and the other people in Flatland inhabit. A little bit into the story, things get interesting when Square gets his world turned upside down upon meeting a character named Sphere who just so happens to be three-dimensional. 1 Needless to say, meeting Sphere is a startling revelation. He does not have the language or the experience to comprehend this new reality that is opened to him by meeting Sphere. When Jesus teaches his disciples, or the crowds, or the Pharisees or, two millennia later, when Jesus teaches us with parables, the experience is similar to that of Square meeting Sphere. Parables are what Jesus uses to describe the Kingdom (or, the reign) of God a reality that is so much different and so much more full than the limited reality that we think we know in our world. They say that every preacher has about 2-3 sermons in them which they package differently depending on the Sunday. Jesus had one he came to proclaim the coming of God s reign. Jesus preached that sermon constantly in his ministry. 1 I am grateful to Dr. Stan Saunders (Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary), and his class on the parables, for this reference to E.A. Abbott s book. 2

3 Through his life where he embodied the reality of God s kingdom in the ways he reached out to those on the margins, healed the sick, comforted the broken-hearted, granted forgiveness to sinners, performed miracles, and turned over tables. Jesus preached the sermon in the ways he led and nurtured the faith in his disciples who followed him. And Jesus preached the sermon in the parables he told about lost coins, and lost sheep, and lost sons. About weeds and wheat, and buried talents, and grumbling field hands working in the vineyard. Parables use the language we know to describe a world of which we only get a glimpse. The word parable derives from the word marshal which can be defined as any dark saying intended to stimulate thought. Think about that definition compared to the way Jesus described to his disciples his intentions in teaching with parables: any dark saying intended to stimulate thought. Parables reveal, and parables conceal. They resist easy interpretation. We often think that parables must have a point. We tend to interpret parables as if they are intended to make some sort of moral claim. And, the way we do it, usually, that moral claim, or point, is relatively self-evident from a quick reading or hearing of the parable. But what if Jesus taught in parables in order to do something else? What if Jesus taught in parables in order that we might begin to grow comfortable with the strangeness of this new reality that is God s kingdom? Jesus certainly seems to be preparing the disciples ears and eyes to recognize this new thing that was breaking forth in their midst. blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it. 3

4 +++ We are conditioned to believe that the world we inhabit is locked. Locked into what we consider to be immutable categories, or outcomes, or choices. Where your salary and social standing define your worth. Where the answers are either right or wrong; faithful or unfaithful; moral or immoral. Where the poor choices you make haunt you for the rest of your life. Where the power of money, or violence, or evil, or death reign supreme. But God is not restrained by such things. And neither is God s kingdom. One of the essential tenants of our faith as Presbyterians is that we affirm the sovereignty of God. And when you do that, it means that you affirm the reality that we cannot place limits on what God can or cannot do. When you affirm the sovereignty of God, it means that you affirm the reality that God may well choose to operate outside of the categories and the outcomes and the choices that we think are so unchangeable. But, okay preacher, why does this matter? All of this seems like an intellectual exercise, for are we not bound to the dimensions that we see? Many people think so. Many churches think so. They think that the point of faith is to describe a future that awaits us. That the reason we come to church and go through the motions is because if we do then we might earn some future reward. The reward of eternal life that makes this earthly version worth living. But what is peculiar is that, in the Bible and in his parables - when Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God, he does so in the present tense. Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God as something that is unfolding in this time. It is the Kingdom we see when rich and poor sit at tables together in the Highland Center on Thursday nights to eat supper together. 4

5 It is the Kingdom we see when children of all races and nations and backgrounds play together oblivious as to what should divide them. It is the Kingdom I have seen when serving communion to a dear person with Alzheimer s in a nursing home who excitedly grabbed one of her hall mates to join her in taking the sacrament and who watched the bread breaking and the wine pouring as if it was the first, most marvelous time. Yes, friends, we believe that through his birth, death, and resurrection Jesus inaugurated a new reign; this different reality; this kingdom. And in the fullness of time, we believe that this Kingdom will be fully present fully realized. As Jesus disciples, we need to train our eyes and ears in the art of recognizing that kingdom. Of getting comfortable with the ambiguity that comes with not being bound to the things we think cannot change. That dares to hope past the place of despair. For the faith we proclaim in this ever-changing world requires that we are resilient. Resilient in the face of voices that tell us that the future is something to fear. Because the future is not to be feared. The future is in God s hands and it will look different than the world that we think we know or understand. Through his parables, Jesus is preparing us for that future. For that kingdom. He does so with stories that borrow the language with which we are familiar. Over the next few weeks, I would invite you to listen past the places that you think you know for a glimpse of the world that will be. A world defined by God s limits not our own. 5

6 A world promised to us who are claimed by the One who secures our place in God s Kingdom