Sermon - Tarrytown United Methodist Church

For the Joy of It

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

July 27, 2008

Text: Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-46

How did it happen? Jesus taught that God was giving a joyous gift: the Kingdom of God. And yet so many have it in their minds that God’s Kingdom is something we are being asked to “build.” In his kingdom parables, Jesus told of what God was doing. But we are inclined to make God’s wonderful gifts into commandments, such as:

“Plant those mustard seeds, fertilize, and make them grow into big bushes!”

“Go get the leaven and mix it with the flour so we can feed the hungry!”

“Search for treasures of knowledge, shop for pearls of wisdom so you will have something to tell people that is good news!”

There is nothing wrong with doing any of these things. But the kingdom of which Jesus speaks is first and foremost God’s initiative!

(We shouldn’t be surprised when we turn religion into a check- list of things to do and not to do. Dealing with such lists gives us the illusion that we are in control of our religious lives.)

The four kingdom parables in this week’s passage of scripture are Jesus’ way of teasing us, provoking us, to think differently.

The kingdom of “heaven”---Jesus was avoiding the holy Name of God, out of respect--- is like the situation in which a tiny mustard seed grows to be 10-15 feet tall; or like the common practice of a woman mixing leaven into the wheat and watching the whole thing rise up for baking; or like the situation in which a fellow who discovered a treasure in a field, liquidated all his assets and goes and buys that field; or a pearl collector who finds a pearl so precious that he cashes in everything in order to buy it.

One of the things I like about these parables of Jesus is that they are not descriptions----they are stories which invite us in, to use our imaginations.

Imagine being a farmer. You decide to plant a mustard seed. Maybe you have never seen a mustard seed before. It is tiny. So you plant it next to your house, right up close, so the ground under it won’t be trampled. Then, year after year, you watch it grow, and you now see that you should have planted it farther out. It is so big now----topping out at about 15 feet. You love to tell your grandkids about the day you planted it and your low expectations. A puff of wind would have carried it away.

Hmmm. Jesus has been telling us about forgiveness, healing and a new life. I can hear people scoffing already. Such a “tiny” fragile-sounding message! This message won’t last. But I wonder. Maybe what starts out tiny will grow into a great blessing.

Three portions of flour, one little dab of fermented flour (yeast). The children watch their mother knead the bread and then watch as she covers the pan with a damp cloth and sets it aside to rise. They go out to play and come back later to find the whole mixture lifting up the cloth covering it. And the aroma is heavenly!

What does this mean? Maybe that this active loving presence of God is so often an invisible thing, in our hearts and minds, in our fellowship---- it can’t be easily quantified. But it changed my life, our life, the life of our community. I am no longer numb, empty, hopeless. This Jesus is not strong like a warrior or a judge; and yet--- look at our friends and neighbors whose lives have been re-shaped. Look at old Zacchaeus the tax collector who is now making amends after Jesus ate with him and talked with him. Did you ever think that would happen?

The fellow had eked out a living on that hard scrabble land, just providing enough for his family and having a few sheep and goats. Then one day he is working for a neighbor, planting, and he finds treasure buried there. He knows a good deal when he sees it. So he goes into town, sells all he has and then, in his joy, he buys that field. He and his family will finally be able to have some security.

Well, this fellow is a little dishonest. Is Jesus condoning dishonesty?! No. I think I get his point. When we hear Jesus teach about mercy of God and see how Jesus greeted the little children, and witness him stand right up to those who have been condemning us, there is no doubt in my mind that I want to be with him----that I want to be his disciple. I would give up everything else in order to live under God’s gracious rule.

Pearls: This merchant had an eye for them. He was always looking for the perfect one. Then, one day, he found one, at the market, brought in by someone from far away. Up beside this pearl, all the rest were ugly. He sold all the other pearls so he could have this one---not an especially well-reasoned decision. One might say that his heart overcame his head!

What could Jesus be getting at here? Jesus doesn’t have any valuable pearl or possessions, we know that. But, you know, I remember Peter, James and John. They had their trade, fishing. They had their boats and nets, their homes, a good life. But when they saw Jesus on the shore, calling to them, it was as if the pearl of great price had found them. They never looked back. For the joy of following Jesus and working for him---for the joy of God filling their heart with peace and purpose---they would leave their former life and fish for people.

Entering into the fellowship of God as forgiven sinners was like experiencing a piece of heaven now. Yes, they did suffer, and they did get rejected for their association with Jesus. But they took heart that they were beginning to live under the gracious governance of God, a peaceable kingdom which would one day cover the earth.

Joachim Jeremias, the great New Testament scholar, wrote:

“When that great joy, surpassing all measure seizes one it carries them away, penetrates their inmost being, subjugates their mind. All else seems valueless compared with that surpassing worth. No price is too great to pay. The unreserved surrender of what is most valuable becomes a matter of course….The effect of the joyful news is overpowering; it fills the heart with gladness; it makes life’s whole aim the consummation of the divine community and produces the most whole-hearted self-sacrifice.” (The Parables of Jesus, adapted)

What is that experience like for those of us who do not plow fields or trade in pearls? Are we just too jaded, too “adult” for this kind of joyful response to God? Too many promises broken, too many self-help projects abandoned? We still look for things to do to make ourselves whole and peaceful and joyful.

But what if the great good news is that God has come to us in Jesus of Nazareth----and, through the Holy Spirit, still does? What if, in Jesus, the Shekinah, the glory of God, has a human face. (N.T. Wright)

I was in the Lee High School auditorium in Midland many years ago. The guest preacher at an ecumenical service was Carlyle Marney, then pastor of Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was working as a youth director and took the youth with me to hear him. He held us all spell-bound. I do not remember exactly what he said at the end of his sermon. He spoke of Polycarp, an early bishop, martyred by the Romans by being burned at the stake. In the flames, Marney said, Polycarp reached up for no apparent reason. “Perhaps,” Marney said, “he was just reaching for his crown.” I knew, instinctively, that I had brushed up against God, that I had been in the presence of something of infinite value, into something so important, it was a matter of life and death.
I knew that, for all that it would cost me to prepare and dedicate myself to proclaim the gospel of hope, it was worth whatever it would cost. I had heard God’s call and there could be “no bargaining to keep a piece of autonomy, some realm where I could still set the rules, some boundary beyond which the radicality of the gift does not apply.” For the joy of it, I decided that I must be a servant of the Word. And so it has been, and is. (Virgil Howard Word and Witness)

Amusement is everywhere; joy is rare. Be awake for the kingdom of God is near, even in our midst. You may be aware of God brushing up against you.

In the marriage liturgy, a couple stand and say those improbable words: “I give you this ring as a sign of my vow, and with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you….” Or in the prayer of blessing, the pastor says, “Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their heads….” And in that moment, it might be, you hear news of a new creation.

Choral performance is sometimes a parable of the kingdom of God, a hint of a new day----- many voices coming together to create something beautiful. And you say to yourself, “This must be what God’s reign is like, all these different people creating something beautiful, something which lifts spirits, breathes new life into tired souls.”

The Kingdom of God may come in an “aha”insight,
an experience of serving others, or
we may be surprised by the joy of a breakthrough, a new horizon, a glimpse of the peaceable kingdom God is bringing to the world in Christ, or by a
witness that turns our heads, touches our hearts, and invites us to a life of joyful obedience, in service with Jesus Christ, for the sake of the God’s present and future new world.

Treasures, tiny seeds, leaven in the loaf, pearls of great price----for God’s kingdom is still in our midst and within us.

There are rumors and hints of the way the world ought to be, will be, can be, because, in the ministry, teachings, life and death----and resurrection---of Jesus of Nazareth, a new day has dawned. And we are invited to receive this new possibility as a gift and then live it out.

The gospel of the kingdom is not first about what we are called to do. It is first about what God has done in his Word having become flesh, dwelling among us, full of grace and truth. It is first about God’s powerful, active presence through the Spirit, in our midst, in our hearts, in a world hungering and thirsting for peace. The kingdom of God is like……the situation in which you and I live, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see.