Have you ever tried to describe something and found that there just weren’t words adequate to do the job – an overwhelming sunset – the birth of your child – love? Well, that is exactly what Jesus is trying to do in these parables. He is trying to describe what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. The concept of this kingdom isn’t easy to explain, and it’s even harder to understand. We have been so immersed in the idea that God lives in heaven – that God’s kingdom is way away – somewhere out of our reach while we are living on earth. This way of thinking – this dualism – is so ingrained that we don’t realize that we are approaching the stories of Jesus with this presumption. What if the truth is that God is here among us – even within us – at all times – and no matter where we are – either physically or emotionally? Is this fact – the ever and all pervasive presence of God – what Jesus is trying to tell us in this list of parables?

Have you ever tried to describe something and found that there just weren’t words adequate to do the job – an overwhelming sunset – the birth of your child – love? 

 

Well, that is exactly what Jesus is trying to do in these parables.  He is trying to describe what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.  The concept of this kingdom isn’t easy to explain, and it’s even harder to understand.  We have been so immersed in the idea that God lives in heaven – that God’s kingdom is way away – somewhere out of our reach while we are living on earth.  This way of thinking – this dualism – is so ingrained that we don’t realize that we are approaching the stories of Jesus with this presumption. 

 

What if the truth is that God is here among us – even within us – at all times – and no matter where we are – either physically or emotionally?  Is this fact – the ever and all pervasive presence of God – what Jesus is trying to tell us in this list of parables? 

Let’s look at them:

 

Who hasn’t heard the parable of the mustard seed?  I can remember wearing a mustard seed necklace as a young girl.  That seed floating in that glass ball gave me great comfort that a faith as small as that seed could flourish into a tree large enough to give birds a place to nest.  One of the miracles of Jesus’ parables is that they can operate on so many different levels – all at the same time.  There is nothing erroneous about interpreting this parable to mean just that – that even faith as small as a mustard seed can grow and flourish into something large and fruitful, but even this short parable operates on several other levels that I can work out – and probably even more that I haven’t thought of. 

 

For one, the mustard plant is an invasive weed wherever it grows naturally.  The plants are fruitful in making seeds and these seeds germinate almost as soon as they hit the ground.  Like dandelions or thistles, whenever these plants get a start it is difficult, at best, to rid yourself of them.  In first century Israel no one in their right mind would actually plant one – either in a field or in a garden.  This small seed gives us a plant that is not civilized, proper or genteel.  This is a plant that is wild and grows with abandon – wherever it germinates – in the midst of proper fields and in the least likely places.  Like the mustard seed, when we invite God’s kingdom into our midst, we may not have any way to control where or how abundantly it grows.  And like the mustard seed, God’s kingdom may be all around us – waiting to invade our lives and the world.  But the seed of the kingdom has the capacity to grow into a plant that gives God’s creatures a place to nest – and to co-create with our Father, the original creator.  This mustard plant can represent wildly abundant life.

 

The parable of the yeast, although perhaps less well known, is another story with multiple depths of meaning.  Those of you who are bakers, and especially those of you who have played with wild yeasts like those used in sourdough baking; know that you can grown yeast from the air around us.  All that is necessary is to mix flour and water and leave it out on the counter to trap the wild yeasts that live in the air.  These wild yeasts are not only in the air, but also lie dormant in the flour itself.  All that is needed is the mixture of flour and water, and occasionally a feeding of additional flour and water and you will have a mixture capable of making innumerable loaves of bread.  With the addition of some form of sugar, you can have a powerful leavening agent even faster.  This parable, like the one before it, is domestic; it represents actions that virtually everyone who heard Jesus’ stories was likely to know intimately.  And because it was so well known, who would think to look for the Kingdom of God in such mundane, every day occurrences?  Who would think to compare something as grandiose as the Kingdom of God in such ordinary things as common yeast and the seed of a weed.  And the woman who is making the bread in this parable is making it for a large group of people.  The three measures of flour that she takes is equal to about 100 pounds of flour – bread enough for the whole village.  Even more than in the parable of the mustard seed, the yeast can create sustenance wildly beyond its seeming insignificance.  And the yeast pervades the dough – once it has been added you cannot remove it.  But going back to our description of growing wild yeasts we realize that you don’t even need to add it.  The organism necessary for this wild transformation is already present in the air, the water, the flour.  The leavening is already here – all that is necessary is time and the right conditions.  If the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, then we are already surrounded and filled by it.

 

The next two short parables are about treasure – the first that is found quite by accident – the second by a merchant who was searching for the treasure all along.  What was found was treasure and a pearl of great value – so much value, in fact, that both of these people sold all that they owned in order to buy it.  They sold everything – house, livestock, car, furniture, boat, motorcycle, jewels – everything that they had thought was important and precious before was now, in comparison, of so little worth that they would gladly part with it in order to obtain this new-found treasure.  The parable of the treasure hidden in a field even says of the one who found the treasure that “in his joy he goes and sells all that he has.”  This isn’t guesswork on my part or the part of the expert commentators, Jesus tells us.  These two sold all their worldly possessions in order to acquire this pearl, this treasure.  Think about something so wonderful, so exciting, so amazing that you don’t question whether it is worth more than absolutely everything else that you once thought necessary.  What a wonderful and remarkable find.

 

This is exactly what Jesus is trying to tell us the Kingdom of God is like.  It is outrageously abundant, it can multiply beyond our wildest imagination, and it is everywhere.  And like the net thrown into the sea it will catch us all.  We have no power to stop it, nor do we get to decide who is in and who will be out.  Until the final catch all things are possible.  In the end God will be the judge.  Judgment is out of our hands.  Like the mustard seed we just may not understand the merits of anyone else as God sees them – what we have deemed expendable – a weed – might just prove to have value that we are not able to see or understand.  And the other piece of good news is that God is with us and in us and all around us.  God loves all of us and won’t give up on us either.  God still loves us and believes in us – even when we may have stopped believing in ourselves.  Just when all seems hopeless, we may find that there is yeast growing abundantly where we least expected it.

 

Paul confirms this in his letter to the Romans.  He tells them, “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.”  From before our birth, from before creation we were made to turn to God, to be God’s own children.  For “if God is for us, who is against us?  He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?”  

 

Jesus told the parables, I believe, in order to get people thinking and talking about possibilities – possibilities beyond our imaginings.  The age-old question is “Can we trust God enough to let God be in charge?  To let God take control?  To let God be the one who rules our lives?”  The offer does not get withdrawn. 

 

Look at your neighbor – God is there.  The woman on the street – God is there.  If we start living as though God is everywhere and in everyone, we just might discover that we find God in unlikely places.  We might even begin to recognize God within us.  Every time you are able to find God among us, you are advancing the Kingdom of God, showing the possibilities of Kingdom living to others, and inviting everyone with whom you come into contact into God’s Kingdom as well.  You will be bringing out the treasure – both old and new. 

 

Can we imagine being so loved, so treasured?  Not only is God offering us his very own kingdom, but in God’s eyes we are God’s treasure.  Can we live lives worthy of such love?