July 30 2017 - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - Baptism and How Jesus Surprises, Appeals and Appalls in Parables

A young man, Spencer Schon, was baptized this morning. The rite, of course, followed Creator's traditions in both ceremony and sacrament. I say that because this was the first baptism I have witnessed since I heard a Brian McClaren observation in a book group discussion about The Great Spiritual Migration. He thought it might be helpful for certain churches to align their rites, activities and worship more closely with what they find important in their larger understanding of a church's purpose.

In that discussion McClaren used baptism as one example. He appreciated a baptism he had witnessed that referenced the waters of baptism as primarily a sacrament about connection rather than cleansing. His point was an emphasizing cleansing promoted thoughts with a connotation of purity which draw a distinction between those who are baptized and others who are not.

He proposed thinking of an individual being submerged in the collective waters of baptism with others was a more inclusive vision than of that individual being uniquely cleansed in the waters.

All this centered around his vision of church being faithful and yet changing. Today's gospel lesson highlighted this as well in Matthew 13:52: 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."

Pastor Michelle's sermon addressed this verse as well. I always appreciate how Pastor Michelle's sermons give different starting points to ponder scripture deeply. She preached:

I think what Jesus is saying here is that those who bear God’s message to the world
must always strive to give fresh, new meaning to the old, old story of God’s love for the whole
world, which is revealed throughout Scripture and through Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of
God. We must bring the old and the new out of the treasury and share them in ways that make
sense in our context....

When I heard this a Nietzsche quote came to me that recently encountered again in my reading:

If they want me to believe in their god,
they'll have to sing me better songs.....
I could only believe in a god who dances.
Companions the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and
believers. Fellow creators the creator seeks--those who write
new values on new tablets. Companions the creator seeks, and
fellow harvesters; for everything about him is ripe for the
harvest.

-- Friedrich Nietzsche,  Thus Spoke Zarathustra

I don't know anyone who claims man's understanding of God or the kingdom of heaven is ever complete. In today's gospel Jesus provides similes for the kingdom of heaven, each helping provide another way to know what God would have us know.

The kingdom of heaven is like...

... a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field
... yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened
... 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
... 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.
...  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.

Pastor Michelle preached that those around Jesus would have been surprised by these similes; and different members would have found them to be both appealing and appalling. Farmers understand the seed simile but would have been appalled the comparison to mustard seeds since they would be regarded as weeds. Many would have understood the bread-making simile but would have been appalled the kingdom of heaven simile would be about leaven which they considered an impure ingredient.

Responses to these parables include Matthew 13:51 where Jesus asking the disciples, "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes."

Maybe the disciples were unaware that they really didn't understand. If our thinking presumes we know more today than people did in the past, it is easy to reach this judgment. Another option is to take the disciple's word and accept that Jesus successfully communicated what he intended to everyone in a rather simple and direct way.

It is noteworthy that some of these kingdom of heaven similes touch on purity but, when commenting on the mustard seed, Jesus only addresses the size of the seed and what it grows into. My instinct is to lean towards interpretations that stress that understanding.
 
Parables can help us feel we need a new understanding of what we know. We tend to fashion our lives around stories we grew up internalizing. Many of these stories today take for granted that the Earth is a mechanized system, good mainly as a source of profit. This may have been beneficial for us to act from in the past but new understandings and circumstances of our world may be starting to indicate we need to internalize different stories now.

The New Testament parables may be the best sign posts for getting us moving in the right direction.