Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
“Heaven Can’t Wait”
July 30, 2023
Whoa, Jesus!
This is like a bunch of movie trailers on high speed.
We get a glimpse, an image – a mustard seed to begin and no sooner have we got that picture in our head then Jesus is on to yeast – and this pattern continues with three more rapid succession images of buried treasure, a fine pearl, and a fishing net cast into the sea.
The thing about metaphors, like the ones Jesus is using here, is that there is meaning hidden within them and, importantly, he uses metaphors to describe what the Kingdom of Heaven is like not what the Kingdom of Heaven is.
And when we hear those words “Kingdom of heaven” Jesus is not talking about some far-off mysterious place, never to be known.
He’s talking about the family of God.
Many over the last few decades have taken Kingdom and swapped it out for Kin-dom.
Rather than a royalty-based model, Kin-dom projects a family image – we, us, God’s family.
And so where are we to begin looking for the Kin-dom of Heaven?
Should we go searching in the glorious religious sites we have lifted up – maybe Westminster Abbey or the Vatican or St. Patrick’s Cathedral or the Holy Land.
Or maybe we go looking among those dedicated folks serving the unhoused or the unfed or the sick or the dying, so often offering kindness and generosity in difficult or even life-threatening situations.
Or we might even look around us for ordinary signs of holiness – the child that invites the new student to sit with them at lunch in the cafeteria, the neighbor who checks in daily so that the older disabled woman on her street can stay in her home for as long as possible.
If there is a common thread running through these 5 rapid-fire parables it is that action is taken in each of them.
That mustard seed was planted by the hands of someone who made sure it went into good soil in a spot with just the right amount of sun, only grown after such care would it be a wonderful home for birds to nest.
Of course, the seed could have been eaten by birds before even had a chance to grow but the planter was careful and look at the amazing results!
The yeast had to be given the opportunity to rise when mixed with three measures of flour which would have been enough for a party’s worth of people – what a celebration that would be.
The treasure story is one in which that someone who joyfully found it did everything he could to secure the treasure.
But why doesn’t the man just take the treasure instead of hiding it and selling everything to buy the field.
Maybe the idea is that the kin-dom is not a thing but what does to us.
When we think in terms of the best that God wants for us, it might not be things but how much more compassionate and devoted we become.
And then there’s that fishing story and the sorting that happens with what gets caught.
If we remember last week’s parable with the wheat and the weeds there is sorting good from bad there, too.
But it isn’t we the people who do the sorting – that is left up to God.
These parables also speak a lot of how we are to experience the kin-dom of heaven.
There is action, there is nurturing care, there is sacrifice and patience.
We witness hope and joy and coming away with more than can be imagined after it all.
If we are to build up the Kingdom or Kin-dom, on earth as it is in heaven, what will we need for the journey?
Maybe it will be eyes that see beyond the surface of physical differences and what someone is wearing or their street address or the car they drive – or don’t – and instead seek that which bonds us because Jesus is definitely trying to relate to as many folks as possible with these parables and he gives some explanation but the rest is up to us.
So, we may want to cut each other some slack as we go about this Kin-dom building business.
Ears and hearts go hand in hand.
The stories that are hard to hear are part of us as well as the ones that bring us joy.
Jesus loved stories that left room for individual interpretation of words and meaning but he was also trying to reach people in those deep emotional places.
Yes, there is treasure to be found in feelings – our own and everyone else’s.
One of my favorite parts of this reading comes near the end when Jesus asks, “Have you understood all this?”
And they quickly and dutifully answer “Yes.”
I’m doubting that but I love that they want to give Jesus what they think he wants.
Maybe they answered yes because they thought they understood, but I would guess that they all understood differently and maybe that’s a key for all of us in the kin-dom building business – we have to take time to understand each other’s understanding which I guarantee is never exactly the same for any 2 human beings – it couldn’t possibly given where we each are coming from and what we’ve experienced or learned or heard or were influenced by.
We have so much to share and so much to do.
Take then these words from Steve Garnaas-Holmes with you on the kin-dom journey:
Oh, traveler,
the treasure is not far away.
Oh, merchant,
the pearl is in your pocket.
How much of your life is attic junk?
Escape the trinkets that have been hoarding you.
What you can hold isn’t worth grasping.
What you can possess won’t last beyond the sale.
Don’t seek what you don’t already have.
Don’t covet what can be taken from you.
What you can’t hold in a breath
isn’t worth it.
Breathe in.
Sell all your treasures for that.
Once you’ve seen it shine,
it will surprise you what you’ll let go of for it.
Throw your arms around this world.
Buy the field of this whole grand life,
its weeds and rocks, its pains and mysteries,
all of yourself.
Look! Right now,
you are rich beyond belief. Amen.
(unfoldinglight.net)