Seeds of the Kingdom of Heaven

Seeds of the Kingdom of Heaven
Matthew 13:31 – 33, 44 – 49, July 27, 08

Another parable Jesus put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it’s the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it’s the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened…”The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and dells all that he has and buys that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age.”

SERMON
One of the hardest things about believing in God is trying to talk about it, .. there is great wisdom in the Buddhist practice of meditation, entering the place of emptiness, of being, a place beyond words, there is great wisdom in the Jewish tradition of never uttering the name of Yahweh, because God is beyond names and words.. words cannot describe God.. which makes preaching about it, every week, quite a challenge!

For me, there just aren’t the words.. words that are true enough, right enough, big enough, to explain, exactly why I believe, or how my life is different because I do. Words always seem to fall short, they’re too vague, too pious. I can talk about mysterious experiences.. of how my heart feels full to bursting sometimes, or the amazing kinship I feel with others, or the incredible co-incidences that seem to happen when I’m really open to the spirit. I can talk about how even the worst things that have happened to me, seem to have a hidden blessing in them, but the truth is that it’s impossible to speak directly about these sacred, mysterious experiences. How can the language of earth point towards the reality of heaven? How can words describe what is beyond all words? How can humans speak of God?

Truth is.. we can’t.. but that doesn’t stop us from trying.. we reaching towards the heavens through music, and arts, and poetry and stories, striving to talk about what we cannot express, in terms of what we can – pointing towards the sacred, by talking about the ordinary, and trusting each other to make the connections with our analogies and metaphors and parables. Believing in God is like coming home, like being born again, like falling in love. We can’t say exactly what it is, but we can say what it’s like, and most of us get the message.

Jesus was a master of stories, metaphors and parables, to point towards his experience of God, to point us towards his experience of God, to point everyone to this experience, of awakening to the truth, that we are all God’s children, living in what he called, “the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven.. J described the KINGDOM OF GOD/KINGDOM OF HEAVEN using examples relevant to his 1st listeners, metaphors about farming and fishing, and baking, saying, , KINGDOM OF GOD = Like a mustard seed, like yeast, like a precious pearl, hidden treasure. Net cast into the ocean. “ in the KINGDOM OF GOD – , the last shall be first.

It’s hard for us to hear just how jarring and startling, J’s parables of the KINGDOM OF GOD were for his 1st listeners.

For us, living here and now, in a very different time and context, Jesus’ parables about the KINGDOM OF GOD seem enigmatic… for ex, what did Jesus mean when he said, “in the kingdom of heaven, the last shall be 1st and 1st shall be last? ” It can mean almost anything. It can be a trite cliché, (good news – a new checkout line just opened up at Safeway, while you’re standing in back of a long line) Context is everything!

But in it’s original context, (time and place in which Jesus 1st said it), the KINGDOM OF GOD had a very different meaning… Jesus preached in a poor Jewish homeland occupied, and oppressed by the wealthy Roman Empire – it was living under the Kingdom of Rome, under Lord Caesar. IN the Roman empire, society was highly stratified, with a few wealthy insiders, connected to the empire, at the top, and the vast majority, living at the bottom, are destitute.

Ever wonder – why Jesus called God’s realm – the kingdom? In 1st century, occupied Palestine… what was the kingdom? Who was Lord? “The kingdom,” = Roman kingdom, the Roman Empire, and the only King and Lord was Caesar! By comparing and contrasting the KINGDOM OF GOD with the kingdom of Rome.. …Jesus was making a very cutting criticism of the Roman Empire, saying that Rome’s system was not the system of God. In this context, how do you hear the metaphor, in the KINGDOM OF GOD the last shall be 1st? In this context, it’s not at all enigmatic – it’s political, subversive! Revolutionary! Jesus wouldn’t have survived long if he criticized the Empire directly, so he did it, indirectly, by talking in parables about sowers, wheat, and weeds.

Jesus’ critique of the empire is timeless.. it reaches beyond Rome, Rome is no worse than any other empire in human history. In fact, it applies to us; if Jesus was here today, who do you imagine, would be Rome? Perhaps we are Rome”.

In today’s passage that Rhea read from matt, Jesus launches a volley of metaphors and parables about the kingdom of heaven.. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, he says, like yeast, like buried treasure, like a fine pearl, like a net cast into the sea. The images come quickly, one right after another, with no preparation, no explanation, no time for questions and answers. Jesus zings us with them – 1,2,3,4,5,… – like snapshots, like scenes glimpsed through the windows of a fast moving train. The kingdom of heaven is like this and this and this, he says. It’s almost like he does not want us to think too much about them, like he does not want us to get stuck on any one of them but to be dazzled by the number and variety of the things the kingdom of heaven is like – like this and this and this.

But today, I would like for us to focus in on just one of these images.. the mustard seed, the most familiar one, appearing in 3 of 4 gospels, very input. . we’ve heard it so many times before..but perhaps, it’s lost it’s potency for us. We read it in about 30 sec’s and think we’ve got it. but I imagine something very different in Jesus’ time.. perhaps an hour long interaction between Jesus and an audience, who are probably talking back to him, and interrupting him and debating with him and disagreeing with him and fighting with him, because he’s trying to get them to think, trying to provoke them to think for themselves…. I imagine that Q’s would come up… the audience fighting with themselves, and answering back to Jesus is doing exactly what he wants. It’s making them think, not about mustard, of course, but about the Kingdom.

So, I invite you to hear it as if for 1st time, wrestle with this, debate, in QandA, let’s even use our new microphones today so you can respond.. ..picture yourselves as poor, 1st century Palestinian farmers living under roman occupation, as you hear Jesus say, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.. what do you think about that?

Of all the comparisons? why a mustard seed? We’re talking about God! Shocking, disturbing, very provocative, even a weird, image for the KINGDOM OF GOD. If J were to describe the K of Rome.. he might describe it as a mighty fortress, a team of stallions, a legion of soldiers.. If Jesus said, why the KINGDOM OF GOD is like a mighty cedar of Lebanon, everyone would yawn, say, “Of course.” It’s like a mustard seed … “What’s going on here?” what’s Jesus up to?

OK – you’re farmers.. what are mustard seeds?

Mustard seeds are weeds! Why a weed – ordinary humble, (like a dandelion?)

OK farmers, how do you like mustard seeds growing in your fields? We don’t like them.. Mustard seed is very dangerous in our fields. We try to control it. We try to contain it. Why do you mean the Kingdom is something that the people try to control and contain?” a disturber of the order… a wild weed?

OK farmers – you’re in Matt’s gospel, so most likely you’re Jewish farmers.. how do you feel about them? It’s forbidden in the Torah.. by Jewish law for mustard to Africa during apartheid, and kept the vision alive – 1 man, 1 vote, end of apartheid.. he kept the seeds of faith alive, through 27 years of imprisonment.. and the power of his faith, as tiny as a mustard seed, put into action, spread like wild mustard seed across the entire country, creating a new kingdom.. of 1 man, 1 vote, end of apartheid. The faith of one man, Nelson Mandela.

OK farmers, back to the field.. take a look at that mustard shrub.. What kind of birds take shelter in it? Are these majestic birds? Nope! The phrase Jesus used for birds, did not refer to majestic birds like the eagle or hawk…the kinds of birds who came to find refuge in the mustard plants’ branches… were the unclean birds… the scavengers… the ones who ate carrion… dead carcasses!

- Is Jesus is saying that the KINGDOM OF GOD is really ‘for the birds’…especially for those who feel as tiny, and invisible and insignificant as a mustard seed – those ‘undesirables’ that society keeps on the fringes… those people we can’t even imagine in the KINGDOM OF GOD? (In Mks’ gospel, the parable of the mustard seed is preceded by the story of the hemorrhaging women and healing on the Sabbath).. Who else do you imagine included in the KINGDOM OF GOD? perhaps the kingdom includes the poor, foreigners, the sick, the elderly, the widows, the poor, the mentally ill. AA enslaved in the US, Blacks living in South Africa during apartheid, can you think of others?

- Could it be that even THEY can find a home here!?! In this KINGDOM OF GOD?

The truth is that all of us, in our lives feel as tiny and insignificant as a mustard seed.. Most likely, Jesus did, – nobody from nowhere.. born in a manger in the countryside…of Q’s able birth, a carpenter’s son, from Bethlehem – He lived among the poor… basically homeless – “the son of Man has no place to lay his head”! – He came into Jerusalem, not on a mighty stallion… but on a lowly donkey…- He was arrested, beaten, condemned… and died on a cross – one of the most humiliating forms of execution imaginable.

and yet, his life, like the tiny mustard seed, when sown upon the earth, grows and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’

Perhaps it’s harder for us, to relate to the subversive economic/ political message in this parable..we’re pretty well off by global standards.. but what about the poorest people in Oakland – in the flatlands – immigrants, uninsured, unemployed.. barely making living wages.. how would they here this parable? Perhaps as a message of hope,.. that whenever you feel tiny and insignificant, remember that like the tiny mustard seed – within you is the power of faith, to move mts, to transform not only your life, but many lives! Truth is, all of us, experience those times in life when we feel as tiny and insignificant as a mustard seed, and our faith feels crushed by the inevitable losses that are a part of life. So hear now, another mustard seed parable, from the Buddhist tradition’s hear now, another parable of a mustard seed, from the Buddhist tradition.. A young woman named Kisagotami lost her only child to illness around his 1st birthday. Bereft with grief, she went from house to house in her village, clasping the dead child to her breast, and pleading for medicine to revive him. Her neighbors, thinking her mad, were frightened and tried to avoid her. But one man directed her to the Buddha, telling her that he had the medicine that she was seeking. Kisagotami went to the Buddha, and begged for the medicine.

“I know of some” the Buddha said, “but I will need a handful of mustard seed from a house where no child, husband, parent or servant has died”. Sounded easy enough.. mustard seeds are everywhere.. Try as she might, she could find no house that was without loss. Like the mustard seed, she broken open, to see her kinship, with all of humanity. In doing so, her despair lessened and she no longer felt divided from the rest of humanity. It is said that she returned to the Buddha as a nun and became fully enlightened.

Through the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus compares our faith with gardening.. we too, are called to sows tiny seeds, including some that may not survive. We sow mustard seeds so small, they barely seem to promise anything significant.. but we leave open a crack, a possibility that something may emerge from the efforts in our lives. Something we don’t expect, some invisible chance that something beautiful may emerge, something… when we least expect it. And just maybe, it will grow to something beyond our wildest imaginations.

Faith isn’t about pretending that we’ve found our way when we are lost, it isn’t about pretending that there isn’t suffering in the world. It is, instead being honest about our pain, and about the suffering that exists around us. And the sense that we are not alone, not separate from one another, in our joy, or in our pain. And it is about planting the seed anyway. Amen.