Pentecost 7, Year A

Proper 12 -- I Kings 3: 5-12; Psalm 119: 129-136; Romans 8: 26-34; Matthew 13: 31–33, 44–49a

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois, on Sunday, July 27, 2014.

“THE KINGDOM OFFERED, THE KINGDOM RECEIVED”

(Homily text:  Matthew 13: 44-46)

            This morning, we hear five more parables which are found in chapter thirteen of Matthew’s gospel account.  These short parables are interwoven into the chapter, around the Parable of the Sower (heard two weeks ago), and the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (heard last Sunday).

            This morning, we’ll concentrate on just two of these five parables, the Parable of the Pearl and the Parable of the Hidden Treasure.

            But first, to begin our approach to these two short teachings, we will engage in a bit of humor:

            One Sunday morning, as Father is scurrying around, getting ready for Mass, he notices that Charlie is kneeling in the back pew.   He takes some notice of this, for Charlie isn’t known to be the most pious of the Father’s flock.   Though he can’t hear exactly what Charlie is saying, it seems as though Charlie is engaged in some very serious prayer.

            Indeed, that is the case.

            Charlie says, “O Lord, please help me win the lottery this week!”

            Mass is ended, Charlie leaves the church, the week unfolds, and Charlie does not win the lottery, not even one of the smaller prizes.

            The next Sunday, Father notices that Charlie is, again, in the back pew.  And though it’s still sometime before Mass is about to begin, Father notices that Charlie seems to be deep into his prayers again.

            Indeed, that is so, for Charlie prays, “O Lord, you know I asked you last Sunday to help me win the lottery.  You didn’t come through for me last Sunday, so please, please, help me to win the lottery this week.”

            Again, Mass is ended, Charlie leaves the church, the week unfolds, and Charlie does not win the lottery, not even one of the smaller prizes.

            On the third Sunday, Charlie is, once again, in the back pew.  The prayer is much the same as the previous two Sundays, “O Lord, I really, really need to win the lottery this week.”

            Suddenly, the Lord’s voice booms out from the arches of the church, saying, “Charlie, work with me here, buy a ticket, why don’t you!”

            In Charlie’s case, the moral of the story is clear:  In order to have a chance to win, one has to buy a ticket.

            In the case of the Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Parable of the Pearl, the moral is clear:  We are expected to do whatever is needed to take possession of the kingdom of heaven.

            Notice that the moral in the joke and in the parables is quite similar:  A great blessing awaits, and we are encouraged to do whatever we need to do in order to receive it.

            Before we consider the richness of God’s offer, made to us, of the kingdom of heaven, and our response, let’s notice some aspects of Jesus’ teaching.

            Both of these brief parables have a central theme:

• A great and valuable thing is within reach.

• We are called to do something in response, in order to gain it.

            Some historical details in each of these parables are worth noting:

• In the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, it was common in Jesus’ day for a person to dig a hole and bury valuables.  After all, in those days there were no banks, and no safe deposit boxes.  So burying something where the chances were small that someone else might find it seemed like a reasonable thing to do.  Jesus leaves untouched some aspects of this parable, such as:  1.  Wouldn’t the land owner be entitled to the discovered treasure?  (Yes, the rabbis of Jesus’ day said that should be the case.);  2.  Was the finder of the treasure engaging in some form of deceit in order to take possession of the treasure?  3.  Did the finder stumble on the hidden treasure while he was out gleaning the edge of the field during harvest time?  Scholars sometimes engage in trying to unpack these various issues.  I believe that Jesus simply wants us to get the point that, if we were to have a chance to take possession of a great treasure, that we would do anything and everything to get it.  That’s the point, I think.

• Today, the advertising slogan is “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”  In Jesus’ day, that slogan would go like this:  “Pearls are a girl’s best friend.”  Pearls, in the ancient world, were highly prized possessions, worth doing anything necessary to take possession of.

            From the time that Jesus chose His first disciples, down to our own day, some Christians have given up nearly everything in their lives in order to claim a place in the kingdom of heaven.

            Those first disciples, who would soon become apostles, left their homes, families and former occupations in order to follow the Lord.

            In the Book of Acts, we read that the early Church lived pretty much like (what we would call) a commune today.  When people came to faith in the Lord, they sold their possessions and brought the proceeds of the sale to the apostles.

            Those who had made a profession of faith in Jesus sometimes found that their families would disown them.  Sometimes, their former friends did the same.  Some lost their former professions as a result of becoming a Christian.  Many gave up a lot in order to take their place in the kingdom of heaven.

            In later times, monasteries would come into being, and men and women would set aside everything in their former lives in order to take a place in the kingdom.

            In our own day, missionaries leave familiar surroundings, families, friends and former occupations to bring about the coming of the kingdom.

            For most of us, however, such drastic changes of lifestyle or of the places where we live aren’t a part of the choices we make in order to become a part of the kingdom.

            And I think that, because the choices we must make in order to claim our place in the kingdom aren’t so drastic, making the choices we must make, nonetheless, in order to take our place are a lot harder.

            So perhaps we might approach that decision by asking ourselves these questions:

• Is my relationship with God the central most important reality in my life?

• Is God, and my love for God, the reality that defines the importance of everything else in my life?

• What choices do I make in terms of the use of my time, my talents, and my treasure, if being a citizen of the kingdom is the most important thing in my life?

            May we, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, be enabled to see our place in the kingdom of heaven, and be enabled by that same Spirit to do whatever it takes to claim our place in it.        

AMEN.

Pentecost 6, Year A

Proper 11 -- Wisdom 12: 13, 16–19; Psalm 86: 11-17; Romans 8: 18-25; Matthew 13: 24–30, 36-43

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois, on Sunday, July 20, 2014.

“PLANTING GENEROUSLY, REAPING GENEROUSLY”

(Homily text:  Matthew 13: 24–30, 36-43)

We have before us this morning Jesus’ parable about the wheat and the weeds.  (The usual title which is applied to this parable is “The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares”.)

It’s appropriate for your preacher to make some admissions about this parable:

            1.  This isn’t one of your preacher’s favorite parables.

            2.  Your preacher wrestles with the challenges it presents, and its view of the nature of the kingdom of heaven.

            3.  This parable offends your preacher’s sense of how things “ought to be”.

Now that these comments are on the table, let’s look at Jesus’ teaching which is before us this morning.  In due course, we’ll come back to the three admissions which were made above.

But first, let’s link today’s parable to the one we heard and considered last Sunday, which was “The Parable of the Sower”.

Both parables are found in chapter thirteen of Matthew’s gospel account.

Both parables make use of an agricultural illustration to teach something about the nature of the kingdom of heaven.

Both parables are supplied by the Lord with an explicit explanation of the meaning and application of the parable.  (We noted last week that the Lord does not always supply such an explicit explanation of His parables.  We also noted last week that, since He does supply us with an explanation of these two parables, that perhaps He wanted us to know how important these particular teachings are.)

As we turn to the parable itself, let’s make an attempt to:

·         Understand just how it may have been understood by Jesus’ first hearers. 

·         Discern how this parable may have been understood by the church to whom Matthew was writing. 

·         Apply the meaning of this parable to our circumstances as Christian believers in the 21st century.

Several details of this parable are worth noting.  (Recall that we said, last Sunday, that Jesus is a master storyteller!  His parables are masterworks of detail and interrelated parts.  They continue to show us more and more of God’s will as we study them.)

First of all, Jesus draws a distinction, in this parable, with the seeds which are the planting of the Lord, and those which are the planting of the evil one.  The critical distinction between the two types of seed and the resulting plants lies in the word which Jesus uses to describe the bad seed:  He uses a word which usually refers to a wheat-like plant, known as “darnel” (or sometimes, as “cheat”). This plant looks like wheat in the early stages of its growth, but as it matures, the distinction becomes clear to see.  Unfortunately, most translators do not use the word “darnel” or “cheat” to translate Jesus’ comment, so this fine point in the Lord’s teaching often gets lost.

Now, we should notice that Jesus indicates that the growth of the good and the bad plants has progressed enough so that the servants ask the master if they ought to go out and pluck out the bad plants.

The servants’ reaction is a commendable and normal one:  Doesn’t everyone want to have a field made up of nothing but a pure crop?  (We’ll have more to say about this in a moment.)

But – as is quite common in Matthew’s gospel account – the final accounting is in view:  The master says that – at the end of the age – the field will, indeed, be purified of all corruption and impurities….the weeds will be gathered and cast into the fire, while the wheat will be saved.  Then, Jesus says, the “righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

Who might Jesus have had in mind as He delivered this parable to those who had gathered around Him?

A good guess might be that the Lord had the Pharisees, the scribes and the Sadducees in mind.  For their opposition to the spread of the Good News, which had been planted in the hearts and minds of those who had responded to it, was being undermined by the opposition of the leadership of the Jewish people in that day and time.

If our conclusion is correct then, perhaps what Jesus is trying to convey is an awareness of whether or not each individual person is a seed of the Lord’s planting, or a seed of the evil one’s work.  Put another way, perhaps the Lord is asking each one, “Are you showing, by the conduct of your life, that you have received the Good News of the kingdom of heaven, or are you putting forth the fruits of evil?”

And what of the situation that Matthew’s church was facing, perhaps late in the first century in the area which is now known as Syria?[1]

We may be safe in concluding that Matthew’s church is dealing with a double problem:  Continuing opposition from those who were in Judaism,[2] and opposition from the outside, Gentile world.

Those within Matthew’s church, if our assessment is correct, are being called, by this parable, into a critical self-assessment, to see whether or not they are putting forth fruits for the kingdom, or some other sort of fruit.  For Matthew’s church, if they are facing a dual threat from Judaism and from the Gentile world, they would need to be aware of the characteristics of each in order to seek to conduct their lives differently.

As we look back over our shoulders at Christian history, we can see a long thread of desire for the kingdom of heaven to be pure and totally free of any corrupting influence.

The Church, after all, is called to be a bearer of the kingdom of heaven (no, it isn’t the kingdom itself, but is called to bring the kingdom into reality….this is an important distinction to make).

So it’s no wonder that many in the Church have sought to make it pure of all corrupting influences.

Certainly, that impulse is what drove the first hermits, who went out into the desert to commune with God, in an age when many who claimed to be Christians behaved as though they were still doing all the things they used to do before their baptisms.

Following in their footsteps, the monastic communities had much the same goal in mind:  To create a holy place where the corruptions of the world were excluded.

In later times, it was the Puritans (the ones we usually think of at Thanksgiving time) who tried to “purify” the Church of England (hence the name given to this group) of what were viewed as impurities and medieval corruptions.

In the nineteenth century, a number of utopian societies sprang up, each with the goal of creating a totally holy and spiritual community.  I this regard, one can still visit the cloisters at Ephrata, in southeastern Pennsylvania, or, closer to home, the settlement at New Harmony, Indiana.

But you and I don’t live – the great majority of us, anyway – in a cloistered environment where the doors are shut against the ways of the world outside.

We live in the world.  We have personal interactions and business transactions with people who live in the world, every day.

So what are we to do?  Are we supposed to shut out the world and create a bit of heaven on earth?

Well the answer seems to be “Yes”, we are called to be a holy calling of the Lord…that is the essential meaning of what it means to be the Church.  But we are not supposed to do this by withdrawing from the world, but rather, by remaining in it.  After all, an important point that Jesus makes in today’s parable is the point that the field (the world) has value because of the good crop which is in the field (the world).

Likewise, we are to be seeds of the Lord’s planting, showing by the fruits of our lives that we are giving the world around us meaning and purpose.  Our is a redemptive presence, much like the Lord Jesus Christ’s presence among us as one of us:  He came to redeem humankind.

This sort of business is often messy stuff….after all, we must admit that the roots of the good plants and the undesirable ones are often intertwined.

That sort of messiness makes its way into the Church.

Which brings your preacher back to the opening admissions with which we began:

Speaking personally now, I will admit to you that I don’t particularly like the challenges that Jesus’ parable puts before me.  I’d much rather be a part of a clean and pure kingdom, a kingdom which has already come in all of its fullness and completeness.  I’d like to have a world in which all causes of evil are done away with.

OK, don’t we all want that sort of a world?  It is a glorious thing to hope and pray for.  It is a glorious thing to work toward, which is our calling as Christian believers.

But – and I think here lies the problem – I want to be the one to decide what is good and pure and desirable, and what is not.  And, going a step further, I’d like to make the Church and those in it into the image I have in mind.  (Put another way, the old adage “Be reasonable, do it my way!” applies here.)  But the Lord’s parable tells me that it isn’t up to me.  In fact, the choosing between the good and the bad is many echelons above my ability to do.  That is the Lord’s business. What I am called to do is to be faithful to the Lord, and to do whatever I can to help bring the kingdom into being in this world.

In the meantime, I am called to know what good seed looks like when it is grown, and to respond to the Lord’s leading in growing into maturity, so that the fruits of my life resemble the desires of the one who has done the planting, the Son of Man.

May that be our prayer, as we – each one of us – work to bring the kingdom into reality in this world.

AMEN.

           

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[1]   Many biblical scholars believe that Matthew was writing to a church which was composed of Jews and Gentiles, and which was located in the area now known as Syria.  Many scholars date Matthew’s gospel account to the time period of about 85 – 90 AD.

[2]   We may be somewhat safe in concluding that, at the time Matthew was writing, the break between Christianity and Judaism was not yet total and complete.  The complete break between the two did come in the year 90 AD, after rabbis gathered for what is now known as the Council of Jamnia (Jamnia is a town in the northern area of the Holy Land.)