July 24, 2005 - 10th Sunday After Pentecost - Father Fred Myers

FIRST READING: 1 Kings 3: 5-12
PSALM: 119: 129-136
SECOND READING: Romans 8: 26-39
GOSPEL: Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52

While I was preparing for this morning to preach the sermon, a thought came across my mind: "I wonder what it was like to be one of those followers of this peripatetic teacher?" Don't you like that word?! Peripatetic! I heard that once, and I thought, "How can I use that in a sermon?" Now you know!! It means a wandering teacher. What were they feeling? What were they hearing? What were they doing in their lives? And then the thought came to me, "Well, how wonderful it is that people like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John preserved these stories for us". They are great stories. They are wonderful stories.

When I was a child, my aunt, at Christmastime, always gave me a big, thick book - it was always a different one - but, every Christmas, she gave me a big, thick book. In this big, thick book were nursery rhymes and fairy tales, and I used to devour that book. I would read every word, and I knew those fairy tales backwards and forwards, and the nursery rhymes, and everything. What happened in that was that, pretty soon, I began to internalize what the fairy tales were about - you know, about the grasshopper and the ant, and all of those Aesop's fables - I began to internalize what those were about. They were just stories, to begin with, but, pretty soon, they became something else for me.

I sort of feel that perhaps this is what was happening to those disciples who were around Jesus. Jesus was with them constantly. He was always telling them something. Now, Matthew puts these parables - these stories of Jesus' - he puts them all in one lump, and, this Sunday, we get the final five of the parables that are in chapter thirteen of Matthew's Gospel. These are important parables, and they are important for us to understand. I have a feeling that perhaps Jesus did not stand there and say, "Again... Again... Again..." That was Matthew's doing. But Jesus did, at one point or another, say to them, "Do you know what the Kingdom of Heaven is like? Do you know what it is really like?" And they might have known what He meant by the Kingdom of Heaven. Do we know what we mean when we say the Kingdom of Heaven? Matthew is the only one who uses that term, the Kingdom of Heaven, and that is because he was a Jew and was not allowed to say God's Name. The other Gospel writers say the Kingdom of God, but I sort of like Matthew's way of saying it - the Kingdom of Heaven. When I say the Kingdom of God, that puts God up here as some sort of King, and puts me down here as some sort of subservient something-or-other. I don't like that picture, because that is not the picture that the Gospel shows me about God. But, when I say the Kingdom of Heaven, that sort of tells me that I am in some kind of special relationship with my God, and that God is in some kind of special relationship with me, and that makes me understand better who I am in relation to God and who I am in relation to other people.

But now, in these parables -- Let's listen to these parables, only we will do it a little more slowly:

Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, our relationship with God, is somewhat like a mustard seed. It is the smallest of seeds. It has a very small beginning, but it grows into this huge, humongous tree, big enough for birds to make nests in.

Well, my own experience of finding God and finding Jesus in my life began just exactly that way. It was a small seed that was planted. I was very young and was in grade school, and I was somewhere between the second and sixth grades. I remember walking along, going to school - I walked to school, uphill, both ways, remember that? - Anyway, I was walking to school, and I was given an invitation to come to a Bible study. Now, my family was not particularly religious. I can't remember going to Church with them until later on, until I had this experience. But we were invited to this Bible study in this lady's home, and we went there and all gathered together in her basement, which was kind of fun, as I knew her son. We gathered together, and we had the flannel board. Remember the flannel board with the stories on them, and you could stick these pictures on them? I always wondered how those pictures stuck on that flannel board! But they were wonderful! And I learned the Bible stories. I heard the Bible stories for the first time in my life at that gathering. The seed had been planted for me, and, after that, after we had gone through that Bible study, I got acquainted with other Christians, I joined a Church and became active in a Church as a young boy - and, well, look where I am now! That seed was planted and was planted deeply within my heart, and I am very grateful for that. So, what happens in that, Jesus says, is not only is the seed planted, but it is nourished, and it is transformed - this very small seed is transformed into something huge and enormous, something very useful.

And Jesus went on to say, at another time perhaps, or maybe at this time, that the Kingdom of Heaven, this relationship that we have with God, is sort of like yeast, like leaven. If a woman takes leaven and puts it into - Men, too, let's not be sexist about this! - You take the leaven, put it in with the flour, mix it together, and bake it, and what do you have? A loaf of bread that has raised up. This little bit of yeast that is mixed with something else is transformed into this wonderful loaf of bread. The Kingdom of Heaven is like that. The seed is planted; the leaven is put in with the flour; and it grows, and it grows, and it grows within each and every one of us. You all will have some experience of when you first heard about Jesus Christ and about His stories and what He is about

Then, Jesus goes on to say that the Kingdom of Heaven is very special so that, sometimes, you just kind of come upon it, and you recognize it when it happens to you. That is sort of what my experience was. It just happened to me, and I thought, "This is very important in my life. This is something I need in my life. This is something that I need to do". And I took steps to expand on that.

But Jesus says that, also, you might be seeking something, as the man who was seeking a pearl of great price. You might be seeking something in your life. There are so many people that I have talked to that have said, "I would like to know what my life is all about. I would like to know what is going on in my life. I would like to know who I am in relationship to God and who God is. I would like to know that." They are seeking and seeking and finding, and Jesus says, "Well the Kingdom of heaven is like that. If you are looking for something, here it is! Listen to the prophets. Hear what they have to say. Listen to what the love of God is all about, and know that you are a special person in God's eyes and in God's Kingdom."

And Jesus goes on to say that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a big net that takes in everybody. There is no one that is left out. Everyone is included. Oh, He does go on to say that, at the end-times, there will be a judgment, but He does not say that that is going to happen at this time. He says that the net is going to gather in everyone, and some will hear, and some won't, but at least it is there. The Kingdom of Heaven is like that - it just surrounds us. Our relationship with God just surrounds us and draws us in - each and every one of us, in whatever walk of life we are in and whatever our life is about - Jesus accepts us and loves us, and that is the Good News.

And then Jesus goes on to say, "Have you heard this? Do you understand it?" And they said, "Yeah, we understood it". "Well then, good! Because now I have a challenge for you. If you understand this, and if you have internalized it for yourself, then walk it! Walk the same walk that I am walking. Walk the same walk that you have been walking with Me. Share the stories. Plant the seeds. Mix the leaven and the flour together for other people, so that they can come to know who God is and who they are in relationship to God and to one another".

These are great stories. They are wonderful stories, and we need to internalize them and say, "Oh yes! Yes! This happened in my life. The seed was planted, and it grew into something wonderful and special". I am here with you all, and that is wonderful and special to me as a part of being in God's Kingdom or in God's Heaven, whatever you want to call it. It is a part of being who we are in our relationship with God the Father, God the Creator, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is who we are, and Jesus has told us this in His stories.

So, you be the story of Jesus. You tell the story in your life in a special way. Oh, I don't mean go out and read stories to people, but you can do it in your life in special ways by serving others, serving one another, loving one another, loving those who cannot seem to be loved, loving those who don't love themselves, being there for other people, and planting the seeds of the Good News of Jesus Christ in God.

AMEN