Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

July 26, 2020

“Eye Openers”

Saint Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

It was annoying.  Our lawn at our house on Jackson and Vale Streets was a field of dandelion seedlings.  You know the ones that pop up and look like a ‘halo’ until the wind blows the seedlings across the lawn and they multiply.

It was annoying to say the least as I drove off to take one of our children to school.  I said, “Look at all those dandelion seed heads – have to get rid of them before they spread.”  The tone of my voice indicated how annoyed I was and the work and trouble involved in lawn care.

Then a voice from the back seat of the car gently spoke:

“But daddy what will happen to all the wishes?”

Dandelions seedling with ‘halo heads’ are picked by children and with a gentle breath they blow the seedlings into the air sharing their wishes.

My eyes were open to a fresh perspective on dandelions.  What I saw as an annoying weed and something to get rid of – a child saw it as a way to make wishes.  “What will happen to all the wishes?”

Matthew shares with us a string of parables of the Kingdom.  Jesus tells us ‘the kingdom of heaven is like – a mustard seed, yeast, hidden treasure, a merchant in search of a pearl, a great catch of fish. 

Jesus uses rather strange contrasts and comparisons to open our eyes to the presence of God’s loving reign that surrounds us.

We need to be clear, very clear:  when Matthew uses the term ‘Kingdom of heaven’ Matthew is not talking about the afterlife.  Jesus is not telling us what heaven will be like in these poetic comparisons.  No, the Kingdom of heaven is the same as the Kingdom of God.

The ministry of Jesus is about the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is God’s loving rule of justice, mercy, and grace.  It is that grace that is present among us now. 

Christ comes to lift the veil and pull open the curtain so that we can see God present now – here!

These images that Jesus shares evoke, provoke, and send us down the road of imagination and wonder.

In first century Palestine the bush that grew from a mustard seed is nothing but a nuisance to the farmer.  It was worse than dandelions.  A mustard seed bush was a negative and nothing but trouble taking up room and moisture from the good plants.

Yet Jesus points out that this scrubby rejected bush will be a nesting place for birds.

Hmm!  Wonder what Jesus is getting at? 

A woman – a minority in first century Palestine – akin to a slave with no rights – a woman baking bread throws in yeast and mixes so much flour that she could feed an army.  Yeast in Jewish circles in the first century was a negative.  Unlike modern bakeries today, in the first century yeast was seen as something evil and unclean.  Bread made with yeast would readily spoil in the heat of Palestine.  A kosher home rids itself of yeast especially during the high and holy festivals such as Passover.

So the image is ‘the Kingdom of God is like impure yeast thrown into an abundance of bread.

Hmm!  Wonder what Jesus it getting at?

The Kingdom of God is like discovering treasure and selling everything to buy the field that has the hidden treasure.  The man doing the digging around in some else’s field is nothing less than a thief.  He does not disclose to the owner the hidden treasure!

The Kingdom of God is like a merchant who gives up everything for the pearl of great value.  Merchants in first century Palestine were held in as much public esteem as used-car salespersons today.

Then Jesus shares the image of the net that catches all the fish but the fishermen leave the sorting of the final catch in God’s hands.  They have no say as to who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out.’

Hmm!  Wonder what Jesus is getting at?

Such parables – such images are meant to evoke, provoke, expand, open us, set us free and move us beyond our conventional boundaries.

All too often God’s people in the church want to draw clear unalterable boundaries around God’s grace.  In the church we want to define what fits in and what does not.  So we have liturgy, creeds, and formulaic rituals.  We create nice neat rows of carefully crafted doctrine and practice.  We use the terms ‘mainline’ and ‘conventional’ to describe the church.  We prefer a certain comfort zone of space and pew. We don’t want our boat rocked or the apple cart overturned.

But Jesus is anything but mainline and conventional:

A nuisance shrub, unkosher yeast, a thief grabbing a treasure, a shady merchant going for a pearl, and a draft of fish that the fisherman has no control of who is in or who is out…such is the Kingdom of God.

Could it be that God is forever invading our orderly sense of things?

Conventional wisdom tells us that God is up there somewhere – a being that is beyond us that seems to rule by benign neglect.  If only God would intervene then things would be different.  The conventional way of seeing God is that God is outside us and our world.  That God is only a being in the vast beyond to be invoked for help and rescue.

But what if God is in every nook and cranny of daily life?  What if God is in the daily activity of kneading bread and plowing fields?  What if God even works through conniving merchants or with a large inclusive net that we have no control over? 

Have we missed all the wishes by attempting to trust in simply a God of intervention?

The Biblical witness does show us a powerful God who is beyond human touch – a transcendent mystery.  But the Biblical witness does not stop there.  “The Word became flesh.”  “In God we live and move and have our being.” 

The Kingdom of grace, God’s rule, is here and now – right in front of our eyes.  Jesus is giving us ‘eye openers’ today.  He is opening our eyes to the wishes in dandelions.  He is telling us that God acts in common ordinary life. 

Through simple water and words of promise God washes away sin and gives us new life.  God comes to us in, with, and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion to set up his loving reign of grace in our hearts.  Unconventional?  You bet!  Provocative?  You bet!  Out of the box?  You bet!

God creates abundance from small things.  The Kingdom of God is about miraculous transformations – from trash bush to tree of life.  Imagine the surprising growth of something small and worthless into a nurturing tree that provides shelter for birds.  That image is meant to open our eyes to see God’s kingdom, God’s loving rule here and now. 

Imagine all the wishes in those dandelions – that is what the Kingdom of God is like!

God is less of a God of intervention, and more of a God in whom we live and move and have our being.  The coming of Jesus – the incarnation of Christ is an eye opener – opening our eyes to God’s presence in with and under all of life.   God is in human DNA, God is in the shards of star dust.  Yet God becomes most visible in Jesus Christ and Christ came to open our eyes to nearness of God’s Kingdom now.

The radical message of the Kingdom is that God is present with grace in the most unexpected places.  Imagine the weakness of a cross bringing hope and new life out of hate and death!  God is present in the most unexpected places.

The call from Christ is a call for openness and trust.  It is a call beyond our staid pews and conventional ways.  It is a call to follow God into the world of scrubby bushes, impure yeast, conniving merchants and treasure hunters.  It is a call for God’s people to cast the net of love wide and deep and to take in all kinds of fish and then leave the sorting to God.

If God is as close as our own breath, if the Spirit of Christ is within us then we can courageously move beyond conventional wisdom and into the new.

How will we be church now and in the future? 

Letting go of the conventional way of being church – not owning our building- might just be an eye opener to a renewed dedication to God’s call to be a servant church.

Imagine a greater emphasis on reaching out and spending our resources on inviting in new members from unchurched families at the school.

Imagine having another intern to help in our efforts to re-build our community of faith.

Imagine having more resources to give to alleviate hunger in our community and in our world. 

Might God be calling us to rearrange our assets to be more in tune with sharing the grace of God’s Kingdom?

God’s call is a call to surrender to the one in whom we live and move and have our being.  It is a call to let go of things that get in the way.  It is like seeing dandelions as a myriad of wishes rather than annoying weeds.

A poem from the hand of Denise Levertov invites us into the God in whom we live and move and have our being.  The title is The Avowal – avowal is a declaration or proclamation of truth.  Here Levertov declares a truth that she has discovered.

The Avowal

As swimmers dare

to lie face up to the sky

and water bears them,

as hawks rest upon air

and air sustains them,

so would I learn to attain

freefall, and float

into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,

knowing no effort earns

that all-surrounding grace.

God is present and God’s nearness is often an eye opener. 

Dare we let go into the Creator Spirit’s deep embrace?

Amen