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July 27, 2008 sermon

A Pervasive Presence
(Matthew 13: 31-33; 44-52)

Reverend Minister Sally Harris

Giver of Life and love this I pray: for stillness to hear the song of Your Spirit.
For vision to see the shape of Your dreaming.
For wisdom to touch the depths of Your creating.
For courage to take the paths our souls have always known. Amen

It's like opening up a manuscript written in a foreign language and having obtained a suitable translation discovering yet another deterrent to discernment. The words now rendered in our native tongue remain obscure for they speak of hidden things, mysterious things, things passed on from a learned rabbi to those who want to discover a different way. To gain understanding of these mysterious teachings one must first enter into the language of the ancient Jewish literary form of the parable. Here one discovers the use of metaphorical language that allows a familiar thing to stand out from its background. The listener is led through words into a strange world where everything is familiar yet radically different. These parables we ponder are rooted in metaphors drawn from nature and common life and yet they reveal something startling about a commonplace theme of rabbinic teachings - the kingdom of heaven. Here we find teachings that are not meant to be interpreted but are meant to interpret the enigma of God's realm, the mystery of that place where God's presence prevails, where goodness and peace and justice are the order of the day. Each of these parables directs us to the paradoxical nature of the kingdom. Though God's place is likened onto the natural order of things it upsets the conventions of our human way of thinking. From small beginnings come big results. No great wars, no royalty, no pageantry ushers in this kingdom. No security, no souvenirs, no spectators line the streets to herald this holy happening, this religious revelation. It comes quietly, humbly, without media coverage, without searing spotlights, without a huge cross suspended over stadium seating, without a rending of the mountains or a cleaving of the skies. It comes like a very small seed sown in the soil.

And so the training, the initiation, the development of discipleship is revealed. First the primary motif of all the parables is made known through the mustard seed. This story offers a seed of encouragement to those who wonder and worry about their investment in a kingdom unveiled by an obscure carpenter who came preaching good news. God's way, God's realm in a world of power politics seems pathetic, as insignificant as a seed. But take heart - have hope there is something significant hidden in that seed - one might expect a mustard plant but no, God's presence will far exceed our expectations. In this mustard seed there is a tree. Now tree may seem to be an excessive exaggeration but here the training is in the looking for something beyond our usual calculations. Disciples are trained to discern the discrepancy between the hiddenness of the kingdom at its sowing and the lush, exuberance of its final manifestation. So, this peasant rabbi says, just in case you want to know where all this kingdom talk is heading, where all this discipleship is leading I will tell you where this seed will take you. Imagine this seed is sown and without your worrying and without your fussing this seed just keeps growing until it is an unrecognizable entity - transformed from seed beyond plant into tree. And then as if to drive home the same point Jesus segues straight into another parable of prospects for the kingdom - the parable of yeast.

The presence of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in, hid in three measures of flour. Now this is no slip of a girl making two tiny loaves for tea. This is a baker, folks. Three measures is a bushel of flour! That's 128 cups! That's 16 five-pound bags! And when you get done putting in the 42 or so cups of water you need to make it come together, you've got a little over 101 pounds of dough on your hands. So this lump of dough - this world of God's is not some hyper-good-for-you chunk of spiritual fad bread full of soy flour, wheat germ and pure thoughts. It is just plain, unbaked bread, and the parable postulator visualizes enough of it to make it even handle like the plain old world it represents: that is, it does not handle easily. The hiding of yeast in a batch of dough is both more mysterious and more pervasive than any of the other hidings the prophet of parables has preached. Seeds may disappear into the ground; but if you are willing to take the trouble to hunt for them you can conceivably find them again. But yeast? No way! Just as yeast enters into the dough by being dissolved in the very liquid that makes the dough become dough at all so this parable insists that God's presence, the kingdom, is like yeast that works it's way into the whole on its own. And how does yeast make the bread rise? Just how does this presence work? How does yeast lighten the dough? By filling it with thousands of tiny pockets of carbon dioxide which expands when heated. Warm carbon dioxide gives life to the dough. The warm breath of God gives life to the world. All we need to do, and all we can do, is simply trust that the leaven is, was, and always will be entirely mixed into the lump of our existence and that lightens the load of discipleship. It is not all up to us. The presence, the kingdom is giving life even when we cannot distinguish it from the lump of dough in front of us.

And just in case the disciples in training haven't understood the value of this pervasive presence we name God's kingdom, the metaphor maker, the praying preacher, the solitude-seeking story teller takes the trainees aside, away from the maddening crowd and tells them tales of unexpected treasure and relentless treasure quests. There is a pattern in these two parables of priceless treasure troves: when the treasure or the pearl is found, the discoverer sells all to own it. The difference in these two treasure tales is found in the seekers and in their circumstances. First the presence of God is like a hidden treasure discovered inadvertently while toiling in the field. This unsought for treasure becomes all the unintentional discoverer seeks. It is worthy of all the worker has and so all is sold. In the second treasure story the seeker is a pearl merchant who intentionally sets out on a quest to find the one pearl of great value. This discovery is not a totally unexpected event. It is the result of persistent pursuit and serious seeking. And like the first field toiler, this pearl merchant liquidates all assets to buy the sought-after gem. Here the trainees are taught the value of this treasure called the kingdom. Here the plower of fields and the pursuer of pearls find that their discovery takes precedence over prudence or caution. Discovering the presence, touching the kingdom reshapes priorities and calls forth single-minded, persistent, devoted determination. And just in case the listener of these stories still thinks that discipleship is a recreational activity done in one's spare time. Just in case the hearer of these tales decides to look outward instead of inward - to judge their neighbor rather than themselves on the dimensions of discipleship - the teller of these treasure tales talks of the kingdom as a net. A net that indiscriminately gathers up everything in its path - not only fish but also seaweed, flotsam, jettison and general marine debris. A kingdom that touches everything in the world. Everything in the sea - the good, the bad, the ugly - is collected in this mesh-work of the kingdom. And there is no rush to judge what finds it way into this web of the welcoming presence. To the disciples in training the parable prophet declares hands off to the final sorting - that will be up to the angel bouncers - it is not our business. But it is our business to recognize that this training in trees and treasure is not a trivial pursuit; it carries ultimate significance.

"Have you understood all this?" the obscure carpenter asks. "Yes!" comes the immediate response of those who are just peering into the mysteries. And the peasant rabbi responds back with yet another metaphor. The scribe is like one turned loose in the treasure room of the castle - here are treasures of old things that are perpetually springing up and new things that turn out to have been around since the beginning of time. There is an old sacred story to be retold and remembered and there is new ways of seeing trees grow, bread baked, treasures found and nets sorted. Have we understood?

With discipleship everything is familiar yet radically different – a pervasive presence indeed!

[resource: : Barbara B. Taylor]

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