Epistle: Romans 8:26-39
Gospel: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Grace and Peace to you, from God our Loving Creator, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, Amen
A mustard seed. A clump of yeast. A treasure in a field. A merchant in search of fine pearls. A fishing net. Parables are tools that Jesus uses to ‘throw around’ ideas of God and the kin-dom of God. In Greek, the word parable or paraboli means to ‘throw around’. When playing catch with a ball or a frisbee, the object is to ‘throw around’ the object, so that another person can go ahead and catch it. The idea isn’t to throw it sooo out of the way that they won’t catch it, but to practice your own skills of throwing, and in return, catching. So that the other person has a better chance of likewise, catching. You throw around the ball for mutual enjoyment, learning, and growing.
Jesus ‘throws around’ these parables, even if some of them don’t make complete sense. When Jesus asks the disciples if they understand what he’s talking about, and they all nod in agreement and say, “Yes.”... I’m gonna go ahead and say that they probably didn't. Because maybe that’s not the point. Because there isn’t a single way of understanding these. Or a single audience.
When you ‘throw around’ a ball, there isn’t a singular way of throwing so that the person will catch it. There isn’t a singular way in which the person can catch it. There isn’t a singular person you can successfully throw to, and the rest just don’t catch them…
Because sometimes you miss. Sometimes when ‘throwing around’ a ball, the ball goes too high, or too low, or the wind catches it, or a bird flies in front of it or whatever. When a ball is thrown around… Limitless possibilities abound as to how that ball will travel, and it’s a matter of determining the best odds as to how that ball can be caught.
Jesus tells many parables to help ‘throw around’ ideas that inform people about God, but none of them complete the whole picture. The kin-dom of God is like… The kin-dom of God may be equated to… You could think of God as… Jesus is like…
Nothing we say will ever give a complete picture of God or the kin-dom of God. Words may get in the way as to how we describe God, but nothing can truly separate us from God. The Apostle Paul asks the question in his letter to the Romans, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” He then replies to his own question. Nothing. Paul writes, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35, 38-39 NRSV)
Last week, Jesus talked about the wheat and the weeds, and how we cannot take the weeds from the wheat, because the wheat would come with the weeds. It’s not up to you to decide who or what or how or whatever - the weeds are. Personally, I believe that we are all made up of wheat and weeds, but you would have had to come to my other internship site to hear that sermon.
One way you could look at these parables is if you place your own self, or your own faith... in the center of them. Your faith is the mustard seed, the yeast, the treasure, the fine pearl… But allow me to put it in another light - what if Jesus is the mustard seed, the yeast, the treasure, the fine pearl? Jesus the mustard seed, grew into a large tree where every kind of bird rests in his branches. Jesus the yeast makes the flour leavened. Jesus the treasure for all. Or your own treasures - your time, your talents, your money - If you think of it with stewardship in mind - that all that we have is God’s, and all that was given to us was given to us by God… Then by sharing the gifts of God - Your gifts, like a mustard seed, grow into a large tree, where they have untold futures of bestowing life to many, in the form of a small mustard seed. A little can go a long way. Or your gifts are what makes flour leavened, into beautiful bread for all to consume. One little ingredient that has a big impact.
Did you notice I saved one of the parables? This one doesn’t as easily translate the same way into a multi-leveled parabolic metaphor the way the others do.
This one is my favorite among the selection that we read this morning. The fishing net. Jesus is a fishing net - that catches fish of every kind… then the fisher draws in the net, separating the good fish from the bad fish. Jesus adds commentary, saying that so it will be at the end of the age… the angels will separate the righteous - hold onto that word, “righteous” - from the evil ones. Then the evil ones will be tossed into the fire where there will be lots of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I’m gonna go ahead and examine that first part - the fisher throws in a fishing net, catching fish of every kind. Every kind. Jesus the fisher, throws his net into the world, catching fish of every kind (that’s humanity). Let’s skip the separating from the good ones and bad ones to the part where Jesus describes who is separated.
The righteous from the evil ones. The righteous - righteousness in Greek, is equated with the word for justice. Therefore the righteous ones are the just - the ones that fight for justice. In this parable - Jesus is pointing out that the justice-minded folks are the ones that are saved from the fire of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But what is “justice”? What is this word that gets ‘thrown around’ so much these days? Well, I’m glad you asked. (PS, this is a shameless self promotion for a deeper look into justice - in an eight-week-long study coming this fall - where we will dive into topics of social justice… but more on that later)
Justice can be seen as the application and advocacy of egalitarianism and equity for us all. The idea that was set down for us all by the founders of this country - that we are all created equally, and all equally endowed with a set of unalienable rights. Social Justice, and those who advocate for it, is the idea of people fighting for and maintaining basic rights that are available for everyone else, but inaccessible for some. What some of those points of advocacy are, what the Bible says about justice, and what you can do about it - will be explored later this fall. So stay tuned.
So, Jesus catches fish of every kind, keeps the just and throws out the evil ones… but before you start throwing tables at me - remember what Paul says. Nothing you can do or say, nothing in all of creation - will ever separate us from the love of God. The truth is - is that Jesus saves us all from ourselves, for we are all sinful beings. In some respects, we are all evil, we all do things we shouldn’t. It’s our basic and broken human condition. No one is more broken than another, and it’s not up to any of us to determine the kept or thrown out. God saves us all through the grace freely bestowed on us all, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Jesus the Christ who ‘threw around’ stories about God, who taughtpreachedfedhealedwalkedalongside all who needed it.
Jesus the Christ, the yeast, the merchant, the mustard seed, the Savior of us all - ‘throws around’ stories about God that may have many meanings, and are intended for many audiences with many aspects and many perspectives. Jesus the fisher throws a net that catches fish of every kind, and there’s nothing that we can ever do or say, that will ever separate us from the love of Christ.
And that’s the radical truth. That no matter how hard you want to point out who is deserving of the weeping and gnashing, there’s absolutely nothing we can ever do, nothing that will ever separate us from the love of God. Because God is there in the darkest of times, walking alongside you and shining light through the darkness.
Amen.
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