Mustard Seeds (2)

Invocation

Eternal God,

In the reading of the Scripture, may your Word be heard;

In the meditations of our hearts, may your Word be known;

And in the faithfulness of our lives, may your Word be shown. AMEN.

Scripture References:

Matthew 13:31–33 NRSVue

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Matthew 13:41–52 NRSVue

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen! “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like 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. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like 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. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Introduction: A Mix Tape

When I was a younger man, before the advent of streaming services, or even CDs, one of the highest art forms was to create a perfect mix tape.

You can almost get close with making playlists on Apple Music or Spotify, but even that doesn’t quite get it right.

A playlist is limitless, you can add as many songs as you want, move them around, whatever.

But a mixtape, once you started recording to it, you were locked in.

So you had to get the order just right ahead of time, think about how one song flowed into the next song, all to make the perfect mix for either yourself, or your special someone.

Usually, a good mixtape had a theme too.

There might be a hodge podge of songs, different artists, different styles of music, but one theme that flowed the whole way through.

The folks who organize our lectionary seem to have given us a really good mixtape of some of Jesus’ smaller parables.

You can take them all one at a time, and they do actually stand on their own.

But, when you put them all together like this, they have a theme to them.

Track One-Set the mood: The Kingdom of Heaven

The first track of any good mix tape is there to set the mood, and make sure we know what to expect from what’s coming in the mix.

In this set of little parables, I think the opening track is right there in the first line:

The Kingdom of Heaven is like…

Before we get to the parable, we ought to take a moment to consider this phrase the Kingdom of Heaven,

…and if you’ll forgive me, it involves a quick church history lesson…

The Reformation: Everything Was About Salvation

NT Wright wrote in a commentary I was reading a while back about how we can sometimes put the wrong emphasis on our interpretation of Scripture.

In 1517, Martin Luther had had it.

The Catholic Church was in the business of selling indulgences, essentially passing out tickets to heaven to the highest bidder.

I think if you gave enough you were even guaranteed extra leg room.

So Luther nailed 95 theses about how this was wrong to the door of Wittenberg, and protestantism was born, the tradition which we stand.

But because protestantism was born out of a protest around the nature of salvation, Wright argues (rightly I think) that we have a tendency to make everything about salvation.

When we read a phrase like “Kingdom of Heaven,” our brains are hardwired to imagine the place we go when we die, with streets of gold and world without end.

But I don’t exactly think that’s what Jesus is aiming at in these parables.

The Kingdom of Heaven: More of a way of life.

Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.””

For Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven isn’t about where we go when we die.

That would treat this world like a waiting room, and Jesus isn’t interested in that.

Instead, Jesus seems to always want to put the emphasis on how we’re moving through this world we’re in now.

He cares about how we represent the Kingdom with the way we manage this life.

And he can do that because for Jesus, salvation for those who believe in him is a given.

That part is already handled.

Take away from this track:

These parables are about how we move in the world as citizens of the Kingdom.

Track Two- The Heavy Hitter: Mustard Seeds

There was a comedean I listen to who had a fan come up to him after the show and ask why he mispronounced every single word in his act…

To which he responded…if that isn’t the Epitome of Hyperbole…

The Epitome of Hyperbole:

Jesus in this parable is drenching it with hyperbole, he’s stretching a lot.

Not actually the smallest of the seeds…

I have a few Mustard seeds here…

Granted, they’re small, sure!

But they actually aren’t the smallest of the seeds.

As previously mentioned, I don’t have a green thumb at all, but I can name like 13 smaller seeds than this.

So they’re not the smallest, they’re just tiny.

Not really trees…but weeds.

If you’ve ever seen a mustard plant, you wouldn’t use the word “tree.”

Maybe bush. Maybe.

Farmers in biblical times would have had another word for it.

Weeds.

They would have worked as hard as they could have to get rid of this plant.

So to use the mustard plant as a parable would have brought some words to mind in his agrarian culture listeners:

Weed.

Nucance.

Invasive.

Problem.

It reminds me of one of my fish tanks that I have back home.

It’s the first time I’ve ever done a tank with real life plants, and as I’ve come to learn is common, we have an algae bloom that I just can’t seem to get under control.

I keep pulling it out, I treat it with chemicals, and it just keeps coming back. It won’t quit.

This is what the Mustard plant is like to the farmers listening to Jesus’ teaching.

It’s a pain to get rid of.

This is the Kingdom of God?

The birds of the air- Usually a phrase meant for outsiders.

This phrase “the birds of the air” was actually a euphemism back in the day for the Gentiles.

It was a stand in specifically for those who were on the outside looking in.

Those are the people who get to enjoy the expanding Kingdom of Heaven?

Not the people of Isreal?

Not God’s chosen?

But specifically those who weren’t chosen?

Like I said, this track is a heavy hitter.

Jesus’ first audience would have been clenching their fists a little bit at this teaching.

This would have knocked them off balance.

Takeaway from this track:

The Kingdom is subversive, hard to contain, and exists for the benefit of others.

Have you ever seen someone do something under the radar specifically to help someone else?

Maybe they gave a gift that they didn’t want anyone else to know about.

Maybe they bought a meal for a homeless person, just because.

Maybe they gave up their own privileged place in the world so that someone else could climb the ladder a little bit?

Those…those are the moments that Jesus points to and says “That’s what the Kingdom of God looks like.”

Track Three-Follow it up: Yeast

Jesus chooses here to hit the same message again on his mix tape, but with a slightly different flavor of track.

Yeast’s Religious Meaning

If you were a first century Jew listening to Jesus, the mention of the word “yeast” would have raised your eyebrows.

That’s a word that comes dripping with meaning…

Exodus 13:6–7 “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen in your possession, and no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory.”

Maybe living in the Kingdom is sometimes at odds with our religious traditions?

Whatever the Kingdom of Heaven is, it surely isn’t do everything your religious institudion tells you.

It’s not “the church is always right.”

It’s not “the only place to find God is in a sanctuary like this one.”

It’s not “whatever the pastor says goes.”

Well, I mean…it’s not always that…

Translation- Hidden

We miss this a bit in our English translation this morning.

Krypto- Like Cryptic.

This woman didn’t gently mix in yeast.

She hid it in the dough.

It’s a secret.

It’s a surprise.

It’s subversive.

Once again, it’s small, and if it gets hidden in there, good luck ever getting it back out.

This is interesting, because if I’m thinking about both of these stories back to back, they’re not what I frequently think about with the Kingdom of Heaven.

Often we think of the kingdom as big, and flashy, and showy, and majestic, and a beautiful orchestra plays just off in the distance while we watch the sunrise…

But Jesus says this is different.

It’s down to earth.

It’s small.

It’s hidden.

It’s not always super easy to spot.

But once it gets loose in the world, good luck ever getting it back under control.

Just like algae in a fish tank…

Takeaway from this track:

The Kingdom is subversive, hiding in plain sight, and sometimes pushes against cold religion.

This isn’t to say that the Kingdom is against religion…

It’s just that the Kingdom will never let religion get in the way of it’s outreach.

You can’t contain it in the walls of a sanctuary or the pages of a tradition.

It’s going to break free from all of that.

Track Four and Five: Treasures

These two are so similar, I want to treat them together.

And I had a conversation a while ago that changed forever how I look at these two parables.

Two interpretations:

Sacrifice everything for the sake of the Kingdom.

When you come across the Kingdom of Heaven, when you find Jesus, you should give up everything you have, stop having fun immediately, and sell out for the Kingdom of God.

There are times where this isn’t the worst interpretation, sure.

There are times where a bit of sacrifice on our part goes a long way to building the Kingdom.

But there’s another interpretation out there…

Jesus bought the field.

The Son of God went walking through a field, and he found a humanity, a creation that he was deeply in love with.

It was like a treasure of great price.

Completely invaluable.

And so in his joy, he gave up everything he had and bought the field.

He literally gave up his life to buy us back.

Maybe these two tracks aren’t so much about what we do for the Kingdom.

Maybe these tracks are about what the Kingdom does for us…

Takeaway from this track:

You are part of the kingdom because Jesus says you are, because Jesus gives you worth. Not because you made anything happen.

Track Six- One of these things is not like the others: Bad Fish

Which, by the way, if there were an alternate title for this sermon, it’s “Bad Fish.”

A big net, big enough for everything.

This too would be as offensive to them as it is to us today.

The net of the Kingdom is big enough to catch the people who look exactly like us, right along with those who look nothing like us.

The net of the Kingdom is big enough for Ukrainians and Russians.

The net of the Kingdom is big enough for folks who watch CNN and folks who watch Fox News.

The net of the Kingdom is big enough for folks who are sure they belong in the Kingdom, and for folks who are just as convinced they don’t.

Just because everything gets caught in the kingdom, doesn’t mean everything belongs to the kingdom.

Some of the fish is really great, and worthy of the kingdom. And some things…well some things are bad fish.

Hatred is bad fish.

Greed is bad fish.

Exclusion is bad fish.

Takeaway from this track:

Maybe let’s not wait for the angels to get rid of the bad fish…

There are, it turns out, rather toxic people out there.

The Teacher in Proverbs puts this in a harsh, but rather stark kind of way:

Proverbs 26:11 “Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who reverts to his folly.”

There are toxic people who are going to keep coming back to their foolish ways.

People who traffic in hatred and call it love.

People who build their lives around greed and oppressing others to get ahead.

People who exclude everyone who doesn’t look like them, think like them, believe like them.

We hope for redemption for those folks, that they would learn to repent of their ways.

But…maybe we should beat the angels too it and get rid of the bad fish?

I am on the board for the boy’s dek hockey program.

After a recent tournament, someone from another team started posting up a storm on Facebook about one of our teams and accusing them of cheating and all kinds of negative stuff.

Naturally, one of our board members was livid, and telling us so in the group chat.

There’s this other guy on the board, and I want to be like him when I grow up.

He’s just got that wisdom, seen a few things vibe to him, you know?

He saw the livid member of our board at the dek this week, put his hand on her shoulder and said “this absolutely isn’t worth your time. Don’t give it any.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any time for bad fish any more.

I don’t have time for negativity online.

I don’t have time for partisan food fights.

I don’t have time for making other people feel less than just because of who they are.

I don’t have time for letting hatred, or greed, or envy get a foot hold in my world.

Instead…I want to make time.

I want to make time for small, insignificant acts of kindness for others that have a tendency to spread like weeds.

I want to make time for hiding the power of grace and forgiveness in a world that won’t know it’s there until it’s too late.

I want to make time for sitting in wonder that the Son of God sold everything he had to buy this field.

And I hope you do too.

May You…

May you live as a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven, here and now.

May you see that even the smallest of deeds can grow like weeds, and work for the benefit of others.

May you see that the Kingdom of Heaven simply won’t be contained inside the walls of a religious tradition.

May you give bad fish absolutely no time in your days.

May you always remember that you are a treasure of great price, worthy enough that the Son of God bought the whole field just to have you.

And may you play this mixtape on repeat, until the songs get stuck in your head and heart.