July 26th, 2020 
Younger Saints: Pearls & Treasure
Hymn for today: Where Your Treasure Is, Your Your Heart Shall Be
Announcements
– Be here next week for our service with communion. Remember we are under a state-wide mask mandate and please be safe. Reach out if you need help getting groceries or errands done and we will help!
– It is Food Pantry Sunday! Please send in a donation or drop off a donation at the Baltimore Area Food Pantry. Together, we *will* get through this hard time.
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Centering
– From Emerge: Blessings and Rituals for Unsheltering. By Molly Baskette.
God is good! ALL THE TIME! Welcome to the Church in Diaspora on this Blessed Blursday, Xth Day of the Zth month of the year Coronavirus 2020. But who’s counting?
Welcome if you’re watching in hi-def, lo-fi, or have to keep rebooting your screen or your soul because its so worn out. When glitches and hiccups happen, remember God dwells in the interruptions, too.
Whether you if you are old or young, or a little bit of each; queer or straight, or a little bit of each; doubting or believing, saint or sinner, or a little bit of each. Welcome to people of all colors, all genders, all body shapes and sizes, all physical, mental and emotional abilities and moments. Because we are here and there and everywhere, yet somehow still together as One today, this Body of Christ is whole and little more perfect.
Now remember you HAVE a whole body even though it sometimes seems – staring into screens – that you are nothing but eyes and brains. Welcome all of yourself to this moment, with a hand on your heart, and one on your belly, breathing more deeply, remember that in many languages ‘breath’ and ‘spirit’ are the same word.
Now reach out your blessing hands in every direction. Welcome the creatures you are sharing space with, then your neighbors, then strangers afar to this moment of peace and worship. Send out peace with your body and feel it echo back.
Peace be with you!
SCRIPTURE
Remember last week I said we were going to skip a few parables to put the wheat and tares together with their explanation? I said we’d circle back to the verses skipped. Here they are today! And then some! And goodness, they are meaty little nuggets to chew into!
Matthew 13:31-33, Matthew 13:44-52
SERMON: Puzzle me this!
Parables are amazing because they are a short story that means something different to each person. This is the… third time?… I’ve preached on these exact versus. And yet, they mean radically different things each time to me.
This year I read Jewish Professor Amy Jill Levine’s commentary on these parables in the book: Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. She is a Jewish theologian who I recommend highly. When she reads these parables she sometimes sees the exact opposite in them as what the United Church of Christ suggested as interpretations for this week.
Nerdy me? I love that. I love how God speaks to us! Us personally! In the same scripture and out of it, we find meaning and new life!
I’d like to share with you a bit of Dr. Levine’s insights and put them into conversation with ourselves, with classical interpretations, and invite you to agree and disagree with them all!
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like someone who hid a mustard seed…” Now last time I preached on this I took the “weed” angle. The reign of God is weedy and gets everywhere! You can’t control it! The reign surprises us and all our best efforts to control it. Dr. Levine challenges this understanding.
She points out… mustard isn’t a weed. It’s a healing plant, a tasty plant, something you WANT in a garden. This isn’t garlic mustard and wild. It’s cultivated tasty mustard like we turn into the yummy yellow stuff in our fridge. She argues that this isn’t the unwanted seed becoming the wanted object. It isn’t a story of the underdog succeeding. People like mustard.
Now, the classical understanding of this parable is that big things from little beginnings. We draw upon the story of faith the size of a mustard seed. Yet we gardeners know mustard seeds aren’t the smallest seeds. Carrot seeds are way smaller. The middle East has plenty of plants with way smaller seeds than the rather large mustard seed. And we all know mustard seeds don’t grow into trees.
So yeah, it’s true that big things come from little beginnings. It is true the message of Christ has spread from something small to something big.
But parables are meant to challenge us. This isn’t too challenging… expect some bad gardening statements.
Dr. Levine draws out attention to the original language. The subject of the sentence isn’t the MUSTARD SEED. It is about the PERSON. Our English confuses this. In Greek, this sentence is: The reign of God is like a PERSON who HID a mustard seed in a garden…
The subject is the person. Not the seed.
So to her, she understands this parable saying the reign of God is like a person who is a … gardener. Someone who brings about life. And that life and healing and shelter is not just for humans, but for the birds of heaven to make their nests too. The birds of the air. And we know from other scripture that God cares about even birds.
The reign of God happens when gardeners, stewards of the Earth, plant seeds and there is more than enough for all people from this generosity.
Which one of these potential understandings of this parable speak to you? All of them? None of them? One not yet mentioned?
Go ahead and pause share below!
Now, Jesus told another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a woman who took yeast and hid it in three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
This one has confused me. In English, the wording is “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman mixed in flour.” But in the original it is “The rule of heaven is like a woman who hides yeast in 3 measures of flour.”
I have been told this means, again, that from small things … a little bit of yeast… great things grow. All that bread! I’ve also preached that the yucky, sour-dough starter yeast, the rejected thing, is what brings about the good.
Dr. Levine challenges both interpretations. God knows how much I love this challenge! I may not agree with her, but I get a lot of delight seeing the scriptures in new light.
Dr. Levine points out that the first time three measures of flour is mentioned is in Genesis… when Abram sees three visitors and calls to his wife Sarai, “Go make a little bread for our guests! Use 3 measures of flour!” And Sarai goes to do this. 3 measures is like 60 lbs of flour. It is WAY more than a little bread. What’s more, back then just as now we thought of pregnancy a bit like having a bun in the oven. And Sarai, through this generosity, is promised pregnancy. Abundant generosity from Abram. Abundant generosity from God. Extreme joy from Sarai who laughs and Abram who trusts.
To Dr. Levine Jesus is saying the reign of God may be like the radical hospitality of Abram and Sarai. It might be the promise of new life. It may be the joy of baking and baking and baking to share a community together.
She points out that in Jesus’ villages there was usually one community oven. So this woman is going to feed everyone. The reign is planning a party. Sound familiar?
She does not like us thinking about yeast as yucky. Yes, classical and current Jews remove all yeast from their houses for Passover. It is a way to remember when there wasn’t time to let the bread rise. But just because you do this once a year doesn’t mean it is evil or impure or nasty any more than us eating turkey at thanksgiving means that turkey is so expensive and rare we can only afford it once a year.
Rather, yeast, and crops like mustard, have to be left alone to do their work. Hide the seed. Hide the yeast. Wait. If you keep poking and prodding the bread will sink and the seed will wither. To her, Jesus is saying “The reign of God will come in its own time. The time it takes to let bread rise and to grow a seed. The time it takes for people to share.”
Now, I like that interpretation quite a lot. What about you? What interpretations have you heard of the woman who hid yeast? Or the yeast the woman hid? (Whether you’re using Greek or English.)
Again! Pause now and type your response. Let’s dialogue.
Jesus said, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a person, 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.”
I’ve been told, and heard preached, a bazillion times this means that once we meet Christ we should and ought to throw away everything in order to obtain Jesus.
It’s made me uncomfortable in the past. I always have things… people… I don’t want to throw away for Christ. I… I don’t think I would pass Abraham’s test with sacrificing Isaac. … No. No, I don’t think I would. Founders of world religions are exceptional for more than one reason. I’m not a prophet. I’m a mom. A pastor. Abuse and murder of children in the name of God does not sound like a religion following the all Good God.
So this parable has troubled me.
Which is really the point of parables. To trouble us. To make us think. And think again. And when we think we have it solved, to reassure us we have the whole rest of our lives to keep thinking about it because… it ain’t solved.
I appreciate Amy Jill-Levine points out the troubles in this parable. Like… what kind of a person, a merchant, sells their home and family and cattle and goods and stock and maybe even their own freedom to buy a single pearl? WHAT are they going to do with that? Can you talk about living outside of your means? NOW what? He’s not a merchant. He doesn’t go sell this elsewhere. We know he thinks it is valuable, but who else thinks it is worth a livelihood and family?
And why would he part with it after that much investment?
And he sure ain’t going to be glad to find out that a single pearl isn’t going to keep his belly full or the sun off his head or be comfortable to sleep upon.
Troubling.
Dr. Levine suggests we think of it like this: what is worth everything to you? What is worth upending your life over? What is your driving goal? Your pearl of great worth?
Most people go seeking fine pearls. Nice things. Good for awhile, own them, pass them on. Our wants come and go. We are merchants. Shopping. Seeking meaning.
A few see the Pearl of their Dreams. The Ultimate Want. The Ultimate Meaning. Worth radical change. And when they see that, and didn’t even know it could exist, everything else is of lesser concern and no longer matters. Getting THAT pearl is their world.
She asks…
What is your pearl?
Financial stability?
Love?
God?
A good job?
Good retirement?
Health?
A clean criminal record?
A degree?
So the reign of God is like becoming aware of something you didn’t even know was possible, and desiring it so much you do everything to have it, and in having it, and having done all those things, radically change. The reign of God changes us just by us knowing it exists.
That speaks to me. I didn’t know what a church could be, what a loving community could be. Once I realized it’s possible… my whole live was shook up. And I was no longer spiritual but not religious… now I was the dreaded ‘C’ word. Christian!
I didn’t know what loving marriage could be. Once I realized it was possible with my spouse – again – everything changed. My whole life shook up. And then I was no longer an unwed woman dating around. I am wife. Mom.
The reign of God is a treasure that changes us.
Pause here and write below. What is your pearl? What great desire has changed, or is changing, your life?
Jesus said, “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.”
Well, that’s pretty straight forward. Jesus just explains it. It is similar to the Wheat and Tares. All the fish in the sea, all the people of Earth, are gathered up. The good and the bad. There’s no judgment until the end. And even then, it’s not the fish judging each other. Judgment is reserved for God alone. Dr. Levine, the UCC, and me all are on a similar page with this parable… and likely because its explanation is IN the story.
Do you agree? Do you have another interpretation?
Our reading today ends with Jesus asking, “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.”
What optimism! Silly disciples. They understand even less than we do. We know where this story goes. They don’t. Not yet. They will abandon Jesus and deny him and scatter. Of course, we may yet too. God forbid! But free-will is free will.
Jesus then concludes, “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.”
Every person who is trained in scripture. Every scribe. You and me and all who study the words passed down to us. We’re the masters of a household of treasures. And we bring out of this treasure old ways of understanding and new ways of understanding. We scatter it.
What was hidden is revealed. The treasure is out in the open. The mustard seed is now a bush. The flour now a big tasty dough ball. The pearl revealed. The fish pulled in from being hidden in the water.
What has been revealed to you? What old treasures of scripture? What new treasures?
I’d love to hear them! Write me. Comment below. Ring me up. This is not about agreeing. It’s about seeing the wealth, the pearl of great value, the treasure that our parables are.
God bless your hearts and souls and minds as you trouble over these ancient puzzles!
Amen.
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 