| Living As If ... 7/27/08 |
| By: Leah Bradley on July 29, 2008, 9:39 am |
| July 27, 2008 "Living As If ..." Rev. Leah Bradley, preaching Matthew 13:31–33, 44–52 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it 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. He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measure of flour until all of it was leavened.” “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. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind. When it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And 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.” Living As If . . . Rev. Leah Ellison Bradley Preached at Springdale Presbyterian Church, Louisville, KY, Sunday, July 27, 2008 For me, it was high school Chemistry. I tried. I really did! But I just didn’t get it. Each week, as a new concept was taught, new layers of understanding were expected. And my teacher would say “Leah, it’s like ______” . . . then rattle off some incomprehensible example that I found more confusing than the original concept. I had tutors, friends, sisters, all sorts of people who understood Chemistry better than I did, and at one point or another, each person would look at me and say, “Leah, it’s like _____”. I can’t even think of a good example. That’s how far I was from understanding what they were saying! That’s what this morning’s Gospel lesson reminds me of . . . each time I read it, I picture Jesus sharing one of his parables, then looking out at his audience, only to see them staring back at him with blank faces. So, he tries another example, and another example, and another example. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed . . .” “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast . . .” “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field . . .” “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls . . .” “The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind . . .” And I imagine the blank looks don’t leave the disciples’ faces, because eventually Jesus says, “Have you understood all this?” How about you? Have you understood what Jesus is saying? Well, unlike Chemistry, words come a little more easily for me, but this set of parables is pretty challenging. The long list of similes really tests our imaginations. I read somewhere that every act of faith is an act of imagination—a new interpretation of the world, not as you and I see it, but from the angle of how God sees it. There are Native Americans who call this “looking twice” at the world. First, you look at the world from your place and your perspective. Then you move to stand where someone else is standing and take the time to see it from their place and their perspective. Except, in this instance, we’re being asked to look the second time from God’s perspective, which isn’t an easy thing to do, and thus, the laundry list of analogies made by Jesus. This morning, Jesus is inviting us to use our imaginations—to look twice—in order to recognize God’s presence in our lives. The Gospel lesson includes five parables about the kingdom of heaven. It is important to know that the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, does not refer to life after death. It is, instead, Jesus’ way of talking about life in the here and now, life lived in the present reality of the holy—as if God was already fully in charge of the world, as if sin and death and darkness were gone from the face of the earth. And that’s our challenge, really. As the “Body of Christ” we are called to be “as if people”—living as if God’s wholeness and truth were already realized. And that’s no small task! As a matter of fact, it’s life-changing. I heard a story once about a man who survived the Holocaust by living as if it were already over. He was a college professor before the war and while he was in the concentration camp, he spent his days thinking through the lectures he would give when he got out. He processed all the pain and suffering, the atrocities he witnessed and endured, by thinking about them as if they were part of the past, and envisioning himself writing and lecturing about the Holocaust as if it were something he had already experienced and survived. And one day that was true. Doesn’t that sound a lot like what it means to be a Christian? I’m not saying we can begin to compare our daily experiences to those of someone who lived through the Holocaust, but we are called to look past a lot of what we experience today and live as if the world was the just, fair, loving place God intends for it to be. Of course, Jesus’ disciples had as much trouble as we have in hearing or seeing what Jesus is talking about. And that’s why Jesus speaks the language of imagination. He speaks in parables: image stories that invite us to see the holy in the human, the miraculous in the mundane, the extraordinary in the ordinary. There is an old story about William Randolph Hearst, a famous newspaper owner and a very wealthy man, who saw a painting one day and liked it so much he hired a detective to search for the original. It wasn’t long before the detective returned to him with the good news that he had found the painting—it was in one of Hearst’s own warehouses. He already owned it! So often, we look desperately for God or for the kingdom of heaven—this world as Jesus described it, as God intended it to be—only to discover that God has always been present in the warehouses of our own experience. So why can’t we see this? Well, where are you looking for God in your life? Not long ago, I had what I would describe as a rash of penny sightings. No matter how insignificant people try to tell me that little coin has become, I’m still the kind of person who smiles and says “It’s my lucky day!” when I find a penny. Well, for a period of 3 or 4 days, I found a penny a day . . . in my driveway, on the sidewalk, on the floor of my office, anywhere and everywhere. It happened so frequently that eventually I started expecting to see pennies! Of course, I didn’t find them every day, but over a period of about a month, I found close to 20 pennies! I talked about it so much that I sort of developed my own theology of pennies, wondering aloud to anyone who would listen, “What else might I find in my life if only I started expecting to see it?” Perhaps more important, what am I constantly seeking that is already in my possession? Jesus’ parable shows us the Hebrew way of digging below the surface of life to see the One who is at the heart of things. The Hebrew way of knowing differs from the Greek way. The Greek way, which has come to dominate our culture, is the way of empirical observation and rational reflection. It has come down to us in the form of scientific method—fact over faith. But the Hebrew way is the way of story. And stories have great power. Why do you think most sermons are peppered with stories? Why do you think most of Jesus’ teaching was done through parables? The parables in this morning’s gospel lesson remind us that God’s reality is something we must constantly seek and, at the same time, that God’s reality is all around us! It’s like the tiny seed sprouting and growing and becoming a plant. It’s like yeast penetrating every particle in a loaf of bread. It’s like a treasure or precious pearl, and it’s worth giving up everything we own to have it. The common theme among this series of parables is the surprise of the unexpected amidst every day tasks. The outcomes of these stories defy human imagination. The numbers don’t add up, the results are supernatural. The mustard plant is an herb that normally grows no more than six feet high and would always be considered a shrub more than a tree. It takes a vivid imagination to envision a mustard seed producing a tree with branches where birds would make their nests. Likewise, the act of a woman kneading bread is an ordinary event, but the quantity of flour she is using is extraordinary—“three measures” is close to ten gallons! That’s enough to make bread for a small village. Along with the surprising and unexpected nature of the kingdom depicted in these parables is the sense that we never really know what the rest of the story will bring. The mustard plant may grow quietly without much attention, but it in God’s reality it becomes so noticeable and inviting that even the birds choose to live in it. Likewise, in this reality, it may be difficult to measure the impact of the kingdom, but in God’s reality, the kingdom’s impact will be huge. Just as a small amount of yeast can completely change the flour, a little kingdom reality is enough to transform the world! The same could be said of us if (or when) we adjust our thinking and start living “as if . . .” As if all we plant will grow beyond our expectations! As if what we add to the mix will truly transform the world! As if we have truly found our treasure and our possessions no longer matter! As if our net will catch every kind of fish! As if the results are a foregone conclusion, because they are not our results. They are God’s. This is the Good News of the gospel! Amen. |
