The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 20, 2008
Matthews 13:31-33, 44-52
The Rev. Dr. Kris Lewis

We are a people of words. In fact, the capacity to use language is thought by many to be one of the defining characteristics of human beings. Both as a psychologist and as a parent, watching and listening to and interacting with young children as they acquire words and begin to use them has always enthralled me. Sounds, words, phrases, sentences, always creative seem tojust bubble up. And then they get to that stage where they begin to ask, “Why?” and “How?” “Why does the sun shine? How do waves work? Why is the sky blue?” and on and on and on. Some of the questions have straightforward answers, of course but others…not so much. I remember struggling to put into words, words that children could understand, concepts that I sometimes had difficulty articulating for myself.

I was reminded of this as I thought about the parables we’ve been hearing in the gospels, today and the past two weeks, and it seems to me that in this set of stories, Jesus finds himself in a similar predicament. Jesus is teaching his disciples about what it means to follow him, how their lives will change, and what his life and ministry means for them and for the world. And just like a parent trying to explain something new to a child, Jesus has to work to find the words that will make sense to his listeners, explaining things that are, on some level, inexplicable.

The topic in today’s gospel, as in the gospels over the last two weeks, is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus presumably knew all about the kingdom of heaven, understood all its nuances, had lived in all its glory, a glory to which he would shortly return. And he had become human to invite all of humanity into that kingdom both in the here and now and on into eternity. But the kingdom that Jesus envisaged is not the sort of kingdom that the disciples were used to; no, Jesus’ kingdom is new stuff, it’s radical, and it’s hard to grasp. And so Jesus uses parables, trying to find words, images, ways to explain and describe notions that are difficult to put into neat concrete words.

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, Jesus tells them; the tiniest of seeds, it grows into a magnificent shrub, large enough to shelter the nests of the birds. The kingdom of heaven is like the leaven mixed into the flour until it expands and grows and produces new bread. The kingdom of heaven is like a pearl so fine or a treasure so dear that one would sell everything, all of one’s possessions, in order to attain it.

At the end of these parables Jesus asks the disciples, “Have you understood all this?” and they answered, “Yes.” But I wonder how much they did understand. And as full and rich and evocative as the images are, I wonder how much we understand, how much we grasp about this kingdom of heaven, this kingdom we are attempting to live into now, this kingdom we yearn for into eternity. Kingdoms, after all, are the stuff of history or fairy tales, and heaven? We could be here for a long, long time debating what we mean when we say heaven.

Recently someone suggested to me another way to make these parables more understandable. She suggested that in place of the phrase “the kingdom of heaven” we might substitute “God’s love”*. What does it sound like when we do that?

God’s love is like a mustard seed that starts off small but grows and becomes like a strong tree. God’s love is like the leaven mixed with flour; it expands and grows and produces new life. God’s love is like a pearl so fine, or a treasure so precious that one would sell everything, all of one’s possession, in order to attain it.

Scripture is of course full of testimonies of God’s love for God’s people, but like the kingdom of heaven, the notion of God’s love for us sometimes seems to hover just on the edges of our understanding. Nonetheless, because we are God’s beloved creatures, the seed of that love lies within us, ready to bloom and grow and strengthen us; the power of that love lies within us, ready to expand and nourish and produce new life; the worth of that love lies within us, ready to spill out into the world. And Jesus, the embodiment of God’s love for humanity calls us to enter more fully into that love.

Perhaps that is what the kingdom of heaven is really all about—living into and through God’s love, being receptacles of that love, and conduits through which that love can flow back out into the world. When we live that way, as receptacles and conduits for God’s love, allowing that love to flow through us and to empower us, when we do those things Jesus calls us to do—feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, care for the sick and the outcast, we help make that kingdom more real for everyone.

God’s love is powerful and it is always available for us. God’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven is fueled by that love, and that is the kingdom Jesus is calling us to, a kingdom where all things are possible. As Paul reminds us, in his letter to the Romans,

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God… If God is for us, who is against us?

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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.

As we go out into the world today, let us give thanks to God, remembering that tiny seed of God’s love that is at work within us, expanding to encompass all that we have and all that we are. Let us remember the marvelous things that God has done, and as we sing praises to God, let us be empowered by that love so that we may truly bring in the kingdom Jesus promises. And let us remember that there is absolutely nothing, nothing at all that can separate us from God’s love, from the kingdom of heaven.

AMEN

*Thanks to Heather Mina for this suggestion.