7th Sunday After Pentecost, July 27, 2014

The Gospel: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

 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.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; 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 been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Reflections: We are so accustomed to hearing Jesus’ parables that they have become dull to them. But according to much biblical scholarship, they were designed to “subvert the thinking of the day,” to challenge the status quo. In her sermon, Annett Mayer pondered today’s parables on the Kingdom of God.

Mustard, apparently, was not a desirable plant in the field. Rather than neat rows of plants yielding desired produce, the mustard seed grew into a large, unruly bush. It’s not meant to be a romantic image of songbirds in Eden; Mayer conjured up sparrows, cardinals, grackles. So much for a tidy, predictable, productive Kingdom.

Yeast—or rather, leaven—was usually a piece of old smelly dough, completely transforming the new flour to a new creation. 

Contrast smelly old dough to a treasure hidden in a field or a pearl of great price. Sounds more like a Kingdom, doesn’t it? But if Jesus’ listeners took his words literally, it would have raised some questions. To sell everything—including your home and your livelihood—wouldn’t that be simply foolhardy?

The net that brings in all kinds of fish, desirable and undesirable, to be sorted out later. Now there’s a Kingdom for you. And not very different from the world we live in now.

So, Mayer asks, how do we imagine the Kingdom of Heaven? Is it an achievement we aim for? A particular job? A life passage? Or is it this chaotic world—as it is—in which we open ourselves in compassion and service?