Stretch

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Jesus 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.”

Parables are meant to put folks at ease.  A nice farming story.  A fishing tale with an enormous catch.  A story about buried treasure or about baking bread.  Nice stories.  Easy stories.  Comfortable stories.  But then, somewhere along the way, right in the midst of the telling, parables end up challenging people to… stretch.     

Parables all start easy:  The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, sown in a farmer’s field.  The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, kneaded into three measures of flour. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure, buried and forgotten in a field, the map lost long ago.  The Kingdom of heaven is like a pearl still tucked inside it’s oyster at the bottom of the bay.  The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net, sent deep beneath the ocean depths.  

Then, from that easy start, Jesus begins to slowly reveal the unexpected… the challenging… the difficult.  The Kingdom of Heaven does start out small, just like a seed or like yeast.  It starts out hidden, like buried treasure or that pearl in the oyster or like the fish under the sea.  Then he gently leads us to understand that it is God who has been doing all the planting and all the hiding of the Kingdom.  The Sower, the Baker, the Treasure burier, the pearl-growing oyster and the creator of fish… all are God.  (As a side note, you might notice that in this set of parables, Jesus casts God as male in the role of the sower, makes God female in the role of the baker, and then makes God gender fluid in the role of the oyster. But that’s a different sermon.)  But here Jesus is stretching us to begin to understand that it has been God, and God alone, who has been tucking the Kingdom of Heaven, in, with, and under every single part of all of creation.  Into the parts we agree it should go and into places we’ve likely never thought the Kingdom of Heaven should ever go.   

Then Jesus stretches us further… not only has all this been planted and hidden by God, and God alone, but all of it also grows all on it’s own as well.  Like the treasure and the fish, the Kingdom of Heaven rises up to the surface… going from hidden to fully seen.  We didn’t put the treasure in the ground nor the fish in the sea, yet there they are!  The seed grows all on it’s own.  No human help needed.  Same with the yeast.  The yeast does the work.  We just watch the dough rise.  The oyster as well adds layer after layer to the Pearl without asking once for us to human-splain the process to them.  Slowly Jesus leads us to the realization of what this all means… The Kingdom of Heaven is completely and totally out of our control.  It is a God thing… and a God thing alone.  We neither decide where the Kingdom GOES, NOR do we control where the Kingdom GROWS.  God does it all… without consulting us. 

For many, this is where the parable becomes a real stretch.  The idea that the Kingdom of Heaven is planted everywhere… in everything... in EVERYONE!?… that’s a stretch for many.  The idea that the Kingdom grows… even THERE?  Even in THOSE PEOPLE!?  That too, for many, is a stretch.  

On the other hand, for those of us who “cannot by our own reason or strength” get all the laundry folded let alone come to believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him… this very same parable is the most welcome kind of Good News.  Neither the planting nor the growing of the Kingdom of Heaven is reliant on me!  Thanks be to God!  

But if we’re not in charge of the planting of God’s Kingdom and we’re not responsible for the growing of God’s Kingdom, then what is our part in the Kingdom of Heaven?  

Well, maybe our part in the Kingdom of Heaven is to help one another SEE the full breadth and depth of where the Kingdom has been sown.  Maybe our part in the Kingdom of Heaven is to help one another TRUST that God really does grow the Kingdom even in the most unlikely places and in the most unlikely people… people who look remarkably… like us.  Maybe our part in the Kingdom of Heaven is telling those who feel buried by life that the Kingdom of Heaven has been planted deep within us… and it is growing in us like a mustard seed which also begins it’s life buried.  Maybe our part in the Kingdom of Heaven is pointing out to those can’t seem to see the Kingdom of Heaven anywhere, the places where we can see it poking out and slowly coming the surface like a treasure chest or a net full of fish.  Maybe our part in the Kingdom of Heaven is telling those for whom life feels closed and the future seems shut, that God is at work behind the closed and inside the shut and even down in the muck, and even there, the Kingdom of Heaven is growing in us like a pearl in an oyster, and in time, God will place a treasure of great value right in the palm of our hand.   

God has planted The Kingdom of Heaven here in this place.  Here in these people!  God has planted the Kingdom of Heaven… in you… and it is growing.  

If you are anything like me The Kingdom of Heaven is something that is very hard to see in yourself.  But if you are anything like me it's easier to see the Kingdom of Heaven growing in the person sitting next to you.  So let’s stretch as Jesus is calling us to stretch… and tell one another what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like to us growing in them!  We do not plant it.  We do not make it grow.  We can however see it in one another… and once we see it, we can lift it up and turn it over and over… admire it in the light, and marvel at the gift of the Kingdom of Heaven which God has planted and God is growing… right there… in you.   Amen.