Hidden and Mixed In

I used to love watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. I always enjoyed watching Guy Fieri roll up into some of the most random places and discover something truly unique and wonderful. A few years ago, the Talbot House Bakery became one of my most favorite places in Tupelo. Sitting at the end of a random strip mall next to a dental clinic and a vitamin store is this little bakery that makes the absolute best cinnamon rolls and sea salt chocolate chip cookies that are as big as your face. On the outside it isn’t what you’d expect, but its more than you can imagine.

Not what you expect, but more than you can imagine. I wonder if that’s what the kingdom of God is like. Sandwiched in and around the parable of the wheat and weeds, Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, like a little bit of yeast, like a treasure hidden in a field, and a find pearl.

The Jewish people were no strangers to kingdom. They knew what it meant to live under the foot of the Roman empire. They knew cash as king, emblazoned with the emperor’s face. They knew gross displays of wealth and privilege. They knew what it meant for others to exercise their power and authority.

The Jewish people placed all their hopes in the Messiah. They were finally gonna be free of all this mess. The kingdom of God was gonna take over. Game over.

But suddenly Jesus is saying the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, or a little bit of yeast. Just imagine for a moment everything screeching to a halt. I’m sorry......what? You just told us we need to leave the weeds among us alone and now you’re saying that the kingdom of God is like a weed?*raises eyebrows

The mustard seed wasn’t some coveted plant. It was a shrub. A weed in its own right. It was annoying. It was like the kudzu, bitterweed, or crabgrass of its time. Mustard was a weed that a farmer certainly would have pulled from the field, and yet, somehow Jesus compares this to the kingdom of God.

What about the yeast? Surely this is a better metaphor, but once again something is up. Yeast in Jewish culture was considered impure and a symbol of corruption. The only way to make yeast was to allow bread to mold. And here the measurements are strange. It says the woman hid the yeast in three measures of wheat, which amounts to about 10 gallons, enough to make bread for upwards of 150 people (Suttle).

Perhaps you have heard these parables over the years and listened to how God can do incredible things from just a tiny seed or a little bit of yeast. If only we have faith as small as a mustard seed. But notice not just the miraculous growth, but also the building materials.

God takes what we would pull up and separate or throw away and use it to build the kingdom. God takes what we consider a waste of time and creates something altogether new.

What does this tell us about the kingdom of God? It means the kingdom of God is unexpected. It shows up in places that we aren’t expecting, but perhaps also hidden right in front of our faces. And while it may appear tiny at present or even hard to see, it is there working, hidden and mixed into our everyday life.

In the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus announced that the kingdom of God has come near. How has it come near? Talitha Arnold says Jesus “demonstrates the nearness (of the kingdom) every time he heals someone, reaches out to outcasts, respects women, or cares for the poor....For Jesus, God’s realm is not some esoteric kingdom in the sweet by and by, but as close as the next mustard bush or loaf of bread. Jesus transforms human life not by scaring them to death, but by helping them see the heaven close at hand.”

Barbara Brown Taylor says that maybe “God has resorted to the oldest trick in the book and hidden it in plain view. There is always that possibility, you know—that God decided to hide the kingdom of heaven not in any of the extraordinary places that treasure hunters would be sure to check but in the last place that any of us would think to look, namely, in the ordinary circumstances of our everyday lives....These are the places to dig for the kingdom of heaven; these are the places to look for the will and rule and presence of God. If we cannot find them here we will never find them anywhere else, for earth is where the seeds of heaven are sown, and their treasure is the only one worth having.”

Maybe what we have regarded as the weeds and moldy bread of life is precisely where the kingdom can be found. Father Gregory Boyle seems to think so. A Jesuit priest, he served as the pastor of Dolores Mission Church from 1986-1992. During that time, it was the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles with the highest concentration of gang activity in the area. Father Boyle witnessed excessive gang violence and in 1988 started what would become Homeboy Industries. Today, Homeboy Industries is the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world.

How did he do this? Father Boyle and the parish adopted what was a radical approach at the time: treat gang members as human beings. The kingdom of God begins when we start to see with eyes of not just what is, but what could be.

Father Boyle says “the wrong idea has taken root in the world. And the idea is this: there just might be lives out there that matter less than other lives.” He believes “there is no 'them' and 'us.' There is only us.”

Suddenly, what we thought was a mustard seed and moldy bread starts to take over and provide shelter for others and bread for days. Suddenly, the kingdom of God is all around us.

I love the Talbot House Bakery and Cafe because of the amazing cinnamon rolls and the warm cookies of course, but that is only half of it. Becky Weatherford, the owner of the bakery, started it as a way to give the women living at the Talbot House, a sober living community, a chance to start again and learn a trade. And so she taught them how to bake, how to hide and mix in. On the wall as soon as you walk in it says in bold letters Recovery, Community, Purpose. What I love about this place is that it reminds me of the kingdom of God. Like Homeboy Bakery, it isn’t what you expect, but it is more than you can imagine. It is the celebration of those who have found community, recovery, and purpose in the field and have given everything up to hang on to it.

Where might the kingdom of God be mixed in in your own life? Maybe it isn’t so hidden. Maybe it is mixed in right in front of you. May we find that which is precious and hold to it with everything we’ve got.