Have you understood all this?
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Lectionary readings:
July 27, Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 12):
Genesis 29:15-28; Psalm 128
Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33,44-52
To listen to earlier homilies click here.
Other texts:
Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
Denise Levertov, The Stream & the Sapphire: Selected Poems on Religious Themes
DRAFT text of the homily—please do not cite without permission
Have you understood all this?
Yup. God’s realm is like a whole bunch of things.
Remember: Kingdom of Heaven is just Matthew’s code for Reign of God on earth.
He’s not really talking about heaven, or if so then only in the sense that heaven is already here.
“If heaven is later it is because it is first of all now,” as Richard Rohr says (Falling Upward, 95).
These parables are all about what the kingdom—the Reign—of God is like in this life, in this world.
But there are no exact descriptions, no precise measurements.
God’s realm on earth can’t be calculated, it must be intuited.
Parables resist the straightforward…
they require a sideways approach.
And like the Kingdom, parables are only seen with the eyes of faith—that is to say, by those with eyes to see.
“Tell all the truth, but tell it slant,” said the poetic parabolist Emily Dickinson
God’s realm is often glimpsed sidelong as it breaks into consciousness.
We see the reign of God with our eyes, but we have to explain what we see through metaphor, poetic images—specters that haunt our imaginations and attempt to bring some shape to the glory we recognize as the Reign of God.
This smorgasbord of parables on offer today are actually threaded between the parable we heard last week—the parable of the wheat and the tares—and the “explanation” of that parable.
The two longer parables we’ve heard (the Sower, and the wheat and the tares) each have equally long explanations.
The disciples come to Jesus and say, “what was that about?”
And Matthew has Jesus respond with these explanations that make sense, but also limit the richness of the parables.
In the past couple of weeks I’ve talked about the trouble I have with explanations of parables that are too easy.
What I find odd today is…given the variety of these parables, when Jesus says “have you understood all this?” the disciples simply say, “yes.”
As if no further explanation was needed.
I wonder if that question and response isn’t itself another parable…
A red-flag that says, “watch out!”
After all, Jesus starts this whole parabolic discourse by quoting Isaiah and saying: “You will listen and never understand, … look and never perceive.”
If we say too quickly that we understand the parables, does that mean that we really don’t understand them?
Have you understood all this?
I’m not sure.
The kingdom of heaven is like a a tiny seed that grows to become a tree.
OK, God’s realm is something small, insignificant but with almost unlimited potential.
Seems pretty straightforward.
But, is it just the smallness that matters?
Mustard is pungent, spicy, AND many people are turned off by it.
Also mustard is not necessarily something that one would intentionally sow.
Depending on the variety it can be very difficult to control—and so does it also resemble the weeds sown among the wheat, the aggressive thorns that choke the seeds?
And what about that growth?
Certain varieties of mustards do grow into shrubs but rarely trees.
As poet Denise Levertov writes,
“Who ever saw the mustard-plant,
wayside weed or tended crop,
grow tall as a shrub, let alone a tree, a treeful
of shade and nests and songs?” (Levertov, On the Parables of the Mustard Seed)
this tiny seed doesn’t grow into ginormous trees, except in parables.
It’s not just that it’s unlikely, it’s incomprehensible.
God’s realm is that extravagant, that pungent, that abundant, that spicy, and that unlikely.
Have you understood this?
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast…”
Yeast is also very small and placed in the right environment can create amazing things: raised bread, outstanding wine, delicious beer.
Yeast flavors things—sourdough tastes sour because of the wild yeast in it.
Local environments creates local yeast, which means different flavor profiles.
San Francisco sourdough and Belgian beer have a unique flavors because of the yeast that only grows in those locations.
And, the wrong kind of yeast will completely change—and destroy—a batch of bread, or wine.
God’s realm is again like something that—however much we try to cultivate it—is essentially uncontrollable…
that can work magic, and can be volatile…
can be perceived as delicious or dreadful.
Have you understood this?
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field…”
Ok.
It’s small.
It’s hidden.
I get it.
“And in his joy at finding this treasure sells all he has and buys the field.”
And does what?
Nothing?
He finds it—but doesn’t share it?
The rampant, uncontrollable growth, spicy, possibly pernicious, over-the-top abundance of the kingdom is also something that is worth giving up everything simply to have and keep hidden?
Have you understood this?
I’m not sure…
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls…”
Again, like the treasure in the field, the merchant sells all he has to buy the pearl and the does absolutely nothing with it.
Jesus says, “he sold all he had and bought it.”
Period.
So the kingdom is worth giving up everything you have.
Yes.
But there’s also a change in focus.
In the first parable, Matthew says the kingdom is like the treasure.
In this one, he says the kingdom is like the merchant.
In one it’s the object and in one it’s the subject…
I remember bringing our newborn children home from the hospital.
And then sitting for hours just holding them and looking at them.
We called it watching “baby TV”
There are still times when I’m with them, and with others, and the world falls away.
Time becomes eternal and all I can imagine ever wanting is to just be there in that moment delighting in the ephemeral eternity of being alive.
So maybe God’s realm is both out there, and in here.
Maybe the treasure—the is something we seek, and something we are.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind;
Now God’s realm is searching for us, not just individually but collectively.
Broadly, and indiscriminately, a net thrown into the sea and catching fish of every kind.
Have you understood all this?
One final parable…
God’s realm is like a loaf of bread and a cup of wine that is brought forth from the abundance of God’s creation, and taken and placed on an altar.
And then people from all over, without discrimination or distinction gather around and remembering all that God has done for them, they bless the bread and wine, and remember that they themselves are blessed.
And they break the bread and pour the wine, and share it with one another so that they become one body, and are strengthened to go be salt and light and yeast and seeds and healing hearts and hands in the world.
Just to review:
God’s realm is easily overlooked, easily missed, and also
like unchecked, over-the-top abundant growth,
Like, zesty, possibly volatile transformation,
Like something enticing you into giving up everything you have,
Like something relentlessly seeking you as though you were the most valuable thing on earth,
Like something that gathers everything in sight, indiscriminately,
Like a community gathering, remembering, recognizing, and celebrating with bread, and wine the reality of this realm breaking into this world today and every day.
Have you understood all this?