Jesus' short parables

Sermon Notes, Sunday, July 26, 2020 Proper 12 For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. There's an old saying from my youth that goes, "Never take a Dutchman for what he says, always take him for what he means." I think I have proven that statement true more often than not. The saying applies to prayer as well. There is often a disconnect between what we ask God for, and what we really need. The bad news is we often pray for things that are not good for us. The good news is the Holy Spirit sorts it all out so what comes to the ear of Christ is the true need of our heart and not the false need of our desire. Picture the Holy Spirit groaning on your behalf. Not a comforting picture is it? Who wants to cause the Holy Spirit such grief as to make him groan? But to Paul this is not an upsetting picture, it is a wonderful one. Why? "Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." His groans are before the Triune God for us, not because of us. He groans because we know not what we do. Or ask. Or expect. Or what it will cost us to give up. He takes those prayers and transforms them into the will of God for us. It is a wonderful thing for the Holy Spirit to groan for us because by his groaning we have a place at the Royal banquet. Jesus is trying to draw a picture of the Kingdom of Heaven that his followers will understand. He wants to show them the new territory they are about to enter. But it is quite unlike anything they have known. So he brings it down to their level. Instead of talking about kings, he talks about farmers. Instead of wealthy bridegrooms, he talks about a woman baking bread. These are the people they know. They are the ones who are listening to him even as he speaks. But while they are familiar with these everyday people and occupations, Jesus gives them a wholly new and original spin. In the Kingdom of Heaven the mundane becomes precious. The common and the ordinary glow with translucence, like a costly pearl. In the first parable, Jesus compares the Kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed sown in a field. Today we may cultivate mustard as a valuable crop in itself and use the harvest to fill yellow squeezable condiment bottles on store shelfs. But in Jesus' day, mustard was an insidious weed. A tiny little seed could get mixed in with the sower's valued plantings and grow up to produce a big, audacious, unwanted and unloved bush. Home for the birds but a curse for the landowner. Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is like that. It comes in small and unnoticed, like a baby born in a stable. But it is life incorrigible and cannot be contained. It is a gift to the world if the world can be made to see it that way. Does the sower recognize what he planted? Does he take delight in the surprise home for the birds that he sowed? Jesus wants his listeners to answer, "Yes." Said another way, the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Jesus himself is the mustard seed and the Kingdom of Heaven is already growing before their eyes. Partake of the branches. Fix a home in these boughs. Or again, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened." To our ears this parable seems one-dimensional. You purchase a little packet of Red Star yeast, add it to some moistened flour, and viola you have bread dough. But to Jesus' hearers there was another dimension that we miss. Leaven was considered a rotting agent. It corrupted the kitchen and had to be cast out. Jesus' himself will warn the disciples shortly after to "Beware of the leaven of the pharisees," because it will contaminate their holiness. So leaven is not a good thing to Jesus' hearers. We are again reminded of Isaiah's prophecy when he said, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." The leaven, despised, works its way into the world and transforms it into the bread of life. We can almost hear the Holy Spirit groaning for us to understand and partake. "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." What's this? Someone digs in another's field and uncovers a treasure that does not belong to him. He reburies it and then schemes to buy the fields so that he can claim the treasure. How is that like the Kingdom of Heaven? Jesus comes to us from outside. Our unredeemed heart needs to be replaced before we can let him make his home there. To do so is a joyous thing and the Holy Spirit who brought us to Christ is also the same Spirit who remodels his new home. It's an expensive remodel. The whole structure needs to be torn down and rebuilt. But it isn't arduous. The burden is light, the yoke is easy. Do we count the cost? No, because the gain is so great. So it is when the Kingdom of Heaven comes to live with us. This picture lesson is reinforced in the next parable. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." Among the fine pearls, one stands out and the merchant immediately knows it is worth more than every other pearl he has. There's no debate. No risk/reward assessment. No second guesses. This pearl will only continue to grow in value the longer he possesses it. Ultimately, it is the only thing that matters to him. So it is with us when Jesus' becomes the prize for which we give up everything. If we haven't yet given up everything, the pearl is still outside our grasp. We haven't seen it for what it truly is; and we haven't paid the price it costs to own it. Listen. That's the Holy Spirit groaning on our behalf. The last parable is a reminder that echoes back to Jesus' parable about the wheat and the tares. The Gospel net will catch all believers to be sure, but not all who are caught will be kept. Some will be rejected, condemned, and consumed by the justice of judgment day. The church always needs to be mindful that as long as we are in this world, its net is not impervious to intruders who seek the cover of spirituality to lead others astray. For his hearers, and us, Jesus' words remind us that we will be searched and known on the last day. So we return to the Holy Spirit who groans for us before the throne of God. He intercedes for us when we are oblivious to the beauty of the mustard tree. When we throw out the leaven before the bread rises or walk over the buried treasure not knowing it's there. He asks us to take a second look at the pearl we ignored and see if it isn't just the one we want most of all. Loving us more than we love ourselves, he waits for us to find the Kingdom of God, then rejoices with us in the discovery. Amen.