July 30th, Matthew 13
SERMON: JULY 30, 2017
Matthew 13:31-33 and 13:44-52
Today’s Scripture lesson can have the effect of making your head spin as you try to make sense of the parables being thrown at you “willy–nilly!” The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, yeast, treasure hidden in a field, and a fisherman’s net? Wait, I want to say! What happened to the streets paved with gold and the beautiful gardens that I always thought heaven was like? It’s not until you take a deep breath and slowing consider each of the parable that you can begin to make sense of what is being said.
When I was a little girl, I was given a necklace that had a mustard seed in the middle of a small clear ball. I’m sure the glass around it made the seed look bigger than it actually was, but all the same it looked very small to me. Although its significance escaped me at the time, I wore it proudly to Sunday School and Church each Sunday, and I marveled at how that tiny seed could have gotten into the center of the little ball. I still have that necklace today, although it now is cracked from being dropped many, many times.
Yet, each time I hear or read this parable, I think back to the wonder of that tiny seed and how it got into the glass ball. Traditionally, the mustard seed parable enlists thoughts of how our faith in Jesus grows over time and if often referred to as “Mustard Seed” faith. Faith that starts out like a tiny seed in our thoughts and our heart and eventually grows bigger and stronger over time.
However, when examined closely there are other messages that come from the mustard seed parable. While the mustard seed is most like not the smallest seed on earth, it was the smallest seed that was planted in the gardens during Jesus time. The seeds themselves are indeed very tiny, and it takes approximately 21,000 mustard seeds to make one ounce. When I hear about the mustard seed I always think of the yellow mustard weeds that spring up in the fields early in the spring. Yet, they are not what would grow from the mustard seed of Jesus day. In Jesus time, the mustard seed was proverbial as something exceedingly small, but the seeds grew into very large plants that ultimately resembled a tree. In fact, they grew to a height of about 10 feet tall around the lake of Galilee.
The mustard seed plant was also very important for daily life in Jesus time. The leaves were used as food, and the seeds were also crushed and used as a condiment for bland food. The seeds were also used for medicinal purposes as antidotes for snake, scorpion, and spider bites as well as in poultices for fighting colds and other human ailments.
Because the plants were tall, they provided shade during the heat of the day for man and animals alike, as well as being a place of shelter for the birds of the air.
Yet, like the mustard weed that we are so familiar with, the mustard plant of Jesus time could be just as invasive, spreading willy-nilly where ever it went, invading the nice neat rows of other crops, and growing here and there along the paths. And, since the mustard seed was so small, it can easily hide there in the sack of other seeds and be spread by the hands of an unsuspecting sower.
What we can deduct from this parable is that the kingdom of heaven is not the nice, neat, orderly place that we might think it is. It implies that the orderly rows of the garden are forever being invaded by other kinds of plants, and those that we personally identify as weeds, can indeed belong in God’s garden.
In fact, God is always invading our nice orderly sense of how we as human think things should be. After all, church is nice and neat, and orderly most of the time. We have our liturgy, our creeds and such, and often strong ideas of what fits within the church structure and what does not. Yet, the new, tiny seeds of God’s kingdom are planted in our hearts and minds in unexpected ways, and the ideas can ultimately become invasive, changing what we thought we knew or how we thought things should be done. When we least expect it, we hear the tiny voice of the Holy Spirit whispering in our ear, and urging us to step beyond our own personal boundaries of comfort. Urging us, as disciples of Christ, to spread the good news in our community, spread it to the extent that it becomes like the invasive mustard plant, planting the tiny seed of faith and hope in Christ that can grow over time. For the seed can take root in those who we deem the most unlikely, in those who do not quite fit into our nice, neat, orderly rows of who we think are church material.
For Jesus’ kingdom is an upside-down kingdom, where the poor, the marginalized, the tax collectors and the unclean can have just as strong a claim to God’s kingdom as those who consider themselves model citizens. As we are told, “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.” Notice, it is not we as humans who will ultimately sort the good from the bad, but the angels at the end time. It is not for us to determine which is a weed and which is a flower. It is our job to spread the Word of God and the good news so that it becomes like an invasive plant throughout the world or the yeast that is put into the flour which quietly and mysteriously works, unnoticed until it has permeated all the bread ingredients. For God’s kingdom is meant to influence the entire world just like the leaven is meant to permeate the whole batch of dough.
The mustard seed parable ultimately shows us that little things can be very powerful and have a very powerful impact on the lives of those around us. Like bread, it only takes a tiny amount of leaven to influence an entire batch of bread. The small things that you do can have a big impact. For example, even small signs of showing God’s love to others, such as smiling and greeting someone you don’t know, can have a big impact. And, for certain, small congregations can do tremendous things when they put their minds to it. God’s Word is contained in a small book but is ultimately powerful. As disciples who share God’s Word with those around us, in both words and deeds, we tap into the power of God’s Kingdom. For God is always with us, and we can be certain of His great love for us and our fellow human beings because of what Christ did for us on the cross.
So, let us go forth, sowing the small seeds of God’s love and grace in a willy-nilly fashion so that they will invade the nice, orderly things that unbelievers think are true and important, showing them that ultimately, only God can give them the hope and peace that they search for!
Amen