July 30, 2023 - Ninth Sunday after Pentecost - Starting to Understand the Mystery and Hidden Surprise of the Kingdom of God

Photo by Ron Houser

Creator's pianist, Matt, took this Sunday off and had Matthew take his place.  Matthew's piano accompaniment, like Matt's always is, was accomplished and inspiring. Matthew's playing brought out unique elements in the music and words we sang this week. 

A series of “The kingdom of heaven is like" parables were in the Gospel reading this week. As Pastor Enillie noted "This is the conclusion where you go all out". “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed", “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast", “The kingdom of heaven is like a hidden treasure", “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant finding one pearl of great values" and “The kingdom of heaven is like a net full of good and bad fish."

After all these Jesus asks, “Have you understood all this?” Their answer is “Yes.”

Pastor Emillie asked if we understood these parables, after hearing them for years. She articulated our desire to answer "Where was Peter? He should have come out and said 'Actually no.'". We need more time to process. Think, for example, about the simile "My love's like a red, red rose." To understand that line from Robert Burns needs time for reflection on the attributes of love and roses and determine how they might be alike. Then a quick double check to scrutinize if that understanding matches the poet's. Not to mention a speculation on structure, like why red is repeated twice.

This is made more complex when presented with a list like this. How is a mustard seed like yeast and how are they both like a treasures, pearls and a net. This definitely offers an immense challenge.

Take the mustard seed as the first parable and its associations. Knowing that mustard was considered an invasive weed by the listeners in the crowd adds another dimension to what the crowd was likely thinking.  My head fills with the equivalent of blackberry bushes here which grow on their own. There is an inevitable quality to invasive weeds that invites particular questions. This small seed does not need the help of man to grow. It will come up and be a bush all by itself. Is the kingdom ot heaven that inevitable?

Pastor Emillie called the Parable of the Yeast the Parable of the Baker because an estimated 50 loaves of bread was being made considering the the three measures of flour she was using. And, like the mustard seed, it is small. It is also infused indistinguishable from the dough itself. Again, this requires patience for the surprise to be revealed. The kingdom of heaven is not in the future we are waiting for like a bus that is two stops down. It is present here in the world itself as we wait (and sometimes see).

Her sermon pivoted when she preached about the treasure and the pearl of great value. She laughed and joked about what the merchant might say to his wife, after selling all they had to purchase a pearl but she quickly brought up how this could be an example of the never-too-great sacrifice God willingly makes for us to show love for humankind  Often trying to discover who the hidden God is in parables often leads to new understandings and surprises.

Pastor Emillie concluded her analysis with the kingdom of heaven is like a net. She remarked about the similarity of the Parable of the Net with  and the language and wisdom of last week's Parable of the Weeds. In both God allows the "good" to be gathered with the "bad" without sorting. The selection is rather confined to the angels done at the end of the age. The functions of the net or the fisherman are not to make sure only the "good" remain in the net.  

The way she structured the lessons of the parables around the question Jesus asks was powerful. She began each particular question a parable addressed by starting with "Have you understood?" There is so much to continue to learn from the parables and this sermon invited the congregation to think again on their understanding of each of these five.

I love that the Gospel lesson ends with “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.” 

What a concise description of our best examinations of the parables as we encounter them again and again. These are our treasures and, in our best reactions and thoughts, we do bring out what is new and what is old in each of them based on our experiences and the wisdom of the moment.