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TRICKSTER PARABLES

7/26/2020

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-46
Jesus spoke to them in parables: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.  Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.
    “He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
    “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
    “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

I believe that “GOD” is a word with no clear meaning. I’m certainly not alone in that – a great many people believe the same. It is simply a code we use to denote something that is far beyond our comprehension, an idea that simply cannot be expressed in our limited human thought or language -- something (or someone) way beyond our mind’s grasp. We know it’s out there (we know it’s in here) — we have moments of recognizing it — but we cannot explain it.

Like the story of the three blind men and the elephant, we all grasp various pieces of God, from time to time, but never God’s totality. God is just too much. Libraries have been filled with books meant to “define” God, and yet we are no closer to a real answer.

I suspect Jesus was faced with the same puzzle whenever he tried to explain God’s kingdom to his followers: The kingdom of heaven is like a seed -- like yeast -- like a hidden treasure -- like a pearl. Is there anyone who, after reading this scripture, really feels they are now any closer to defining the “kingdom of heaven?” All these things in our reading are part of it, but what IS it?

What we have today is a series of mini-parables – little “drive-by” parables. John Dominic Crossan, in one of his earliest books, “In Parables”, explains that parables are designed to rearrange our thinking about something, to jog us out of our ruts. They are tricks that set us up to think we know the correct answer, that we know where this story is going — and then they take us somewhere totally unexpected.

Think of the Prodigal Son, with its wastrel son who hoped for only the bare minimum of mercy, some food scraps to eat – who was instead given welcome and love, or the Good Samaritan, with the “proper” people – the priest, the Levite, passing by the injured man unmoved, and the despised Samaritan the only person moved to show kindness and mercy.

To us, today, these answers seem like the "right" ones because this is how we have always heard these parables, with these endings. But to Jesus' original hearers, they would have been completely surprising, if not actually shocking. A Samaritan was the good guy? Impossible! And that is exactly Jesus' point.

Take any one of the parables from today’s reading. “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” That sounds like advice from a stock-broker. If the pearl represents the Kingdom, then it does make sense that we might give up everything else in order to obtain it -- but still, it has to be more than something like a pearl. Remember that we have to read the Parables carefully because we learn as much from what is not said as from what is said.

We still do not, to my mind, have a very clear picture of what God’s kingdom is like. It obviously includes all these smaller pieces, but put all of them together and I’m left, still not knowing what it is. We could make long lists of things the kingdom of God is like — there are many more examples in the gospels -- but it's the same issue, just multiplied.

What we do have here, however, is a pretty clear image of what the kingdom of God IS NOT. It is NOT limited, NOT restrictive. It has no walls, no purity tests to pass before we can enter. It does NOT meet our pre-suppositions. It is NOT locked away in sanctuaries for only the privileged to see.

It IS bigger than us and bigger than our limited imaginations. It is right here, all around us – in ordinary people, in the simplest things of life. It is available to us right now. The scriptures give us a starting point, a place to begin our life-journey discovering God, but the journey is always ours to take. The conversation must be between God and ourselves.

We need to stop trying to define God and God’s ways. Stop trying to put them in a box. Instead, we need to let our imaginations grow big enough that we can live into the kingdom of God – the reign of our limitless, expansive, undefinable, uncontainable God! Just “stop” with trying to own God -- and let God be God!

May it always be so.

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SOWING SEEDS, REAPING GRACE

7/19/2020

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Matthew 13:1-9
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.
Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

I read a story recently about a man who bought a new house. (I wish I could remember where I read this.) He really loved the house except for a stand of bamboo next to the driveway. Bamboo can be pretty invasive, so he was determined to get rid it, so he hacked it down, then dug deep to remove every root he could find. Then he poured herbicide on it and finally, he covered it over with cement... and three years later went out one morning to find one small shoot of bamboo growing up through the cement. That life was not to be denied. It would sprout and grow where it willed.

The reading for today is the story usually titled the “Parable of the Sower.” Just this week, I read a message by Nadia Bolz-Weber based on this same reading. (she’s a hard act to follow.) In her message, she says that she believes we, most of us, tend to think of this reading as being about the “Judgmental Soil,” even if we don’t call it that. You know, the rocky ground, the dry ground, the weedy ground — all this bad ground that rejects the good seed. We end up being so focused on the ground that I think we often forget all about the seed—and the seed, not the ground is, after all, the point of this parable.

And then she looked at the story from another angle and reminds us that in this “thorny and rocky and good world, God still is sowing a life-giving Word. Just wantonly and indiscriminately scattering it everywhere like God doesn't understand our rules.” ..... I love that line.

I preached a few years ago on “The Prodigal Son” and suggested then that story should be called instead, “The Extravagant Father.” Perhaps by the same train of thought, today’s story should be referred to as “The Extravagant Sower.”

A good farmer would surely prepare soil before planting and then sow the seed only where the soil was cleared and ready for it. After all, why waste good seed where you can be fairly sure it won’t grow? Where’s the return for the farmer? And yet, our Extravagant Sower appears to cast the seed everywhere — openly, freely — letting it grow (if it will) where it lands. God just indiscriminately throws the Word out there anywhere, throws love and kindness all around the place, and beauty into places none of us may ever see.

Some of the most beautiful green and growing things I have ever come across were found in little rocky nooks, far up in the high mountains, at a distance from the beaten trails where few ever go. Some of the most beautiful music ever composed has come from musicians who struggled in obscurity. Brilliant strides have been made in science and in medicine by thinkers raised in impoverished and restricted and stifling surroundings.

By our rules that’s not the way things are supposed to work. Hard work and good preparation are what produce the good results, right? The one with the most money is the winner, right?

Maybe God understands our rules just fine. Maybe God just doesn’t think much of them. You have to admit, most of our human-made rules are pretty sad – restrictive and petty and classist and exclusionary -- whereas God shows again and again and again God’s preference for the inclusive, the expansive, the welcoming.

Our God is an extravagant God. One who throws out love and grace in all the expected places — and, in the most un-expected places as well. Perhaps what God would like from us in return is to not become so embroiled in fighting the weeds in our cherished, tidy gardens that we entirely miss the morning glories exploding on the other side of the fence.

Don’t forget to look around you occasionally. Don’t miss the flash of flaming red on a hummingbird’s throat or the trilling call of the tiny insignificant brown house finch. Don’t miss the love offered by someone you might think isn’t worthy of your friendship or the kind gesture from one who has had little kindness shown him. Don’t miss the grace all around you just because it’s popping up where you least expect it.

And, most particularly, don’t miss out on daily contact with God because you think God only speaks in a church. God speaks to us—loudly, softly, publicly, privately—everywhere and all the time. Just listen and look.

Amen.

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Justice and the Bible

7/12/2020

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Amos 5:24— Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Isaiah 58:6 — Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

Micah 6:8 — what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Recently I heard someone say they wished a friend would stop talking about all this “social justice” stuff all the time and, instead, read their Bible more. This made me wonder if the speaker had ever actually read the Bible herself? Because, it turns out the Bible is all about “this justice stuff.”

Certainly, Jesus says a great deal, such as “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Or, a chapter or so later, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint, dill, and cumin [the smallest things], and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith.”

If the New Testament has plenty to say about justice, and there is certainly an immense amount more than these two examples, the Old Testament then, (the Hebrew Scriptures) has much, much more. The prophets I quoted at the beginning of this message, Amos, Isaiah, and Micah all have a great deal to say on the subject of justice — just as do the writers of both Leviticus and Deuteronomy, as other prophets such as Ezekiel — and the Psalms and many more. The Lord’s Great Day — mentioned in a few different books -- the Day of Atonement — decreed that every seven years, slaves would be set free and debts would be forgiven. That sounds like justice to my ears.

Every forty-nine years (that’s seven sevens) Jubilee was declared and land that had been sold to satisfy debts would be returned to its original owner’s family. I can’t even conceive of such a law here in our country, where property has always been viewed as more important than the lives of actual human persons.

We, as Christians, are a people bound to care about justice and bound to take it very seriously — because the Bible makes its entirely clear that God takes it very seriously. If we are going to call ourselves followers of Jesus it would benefit us to read what Jesus and the prophets had to say on the subject of justice.

There are those today who want us to believe that protests and marches are all about politics--just politics This is true only to the extent that everything ends up being political these days, because it is so much easier for us to agree to disagree on politics than to admit that we have lost our way on moral issues.

We live in a time and place where we accept homelessness as “natural.” It isn’t. A time and place where only the very wealthiest can afford certain medications, not because they are really that expensive to produce but because the manufacturers and their stockholders are greedy. We accept this as normal. It isn’t.

Certain segments of our society – certain races, certain ethnic groups -- have been used and excluded and stolen from for generations. That’s not normal. It’s not right. Never has been. It is, in fact, hideously wrong. All we have to do is pay attention to what scripture and the teachings of our faith – as well as the voice of the Spirit that dwells within us -- have been saying all along.

If God takes justice seriously, then why don’t we? How have we come to the point where money is more important than mercy?

It is time for us to wake up and actually listen to what is happening all around us. It is time for the things that are right to be the things that matter once again. We each have a choice every day: We can say, “It’s always been this way, I can’t I do anything about it” -- or -- we can say “Here I am, Lord. Use me. Show me your way.”

“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. “

Amen.

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KEEP YOUR MIND ON THESE THINGS

7/5/2020

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Philippians 4:4-5a, 8-9
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all....Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

This is a stressful time in our world today. We are dealing with a pandemic that we still know too little about. Our usual habits and routines have been disrupted. Many people are out of work and becoming desperate. We try to be responsible and kind, but we still deal with fear, and frustration, and sometimes, loneliness.

Perhaps because of the many tensions and restrictions in place right now, long-overdue justice issues are coming forward, such as equal treatment for all people regardless of skin color, healthcare availability, environmental concerns, and other issues we’ve allowed to be shoved to the backs of our attention for far too long. They are finally forcing their way to the front, saying “I’m here! Deal with me. Deal with me now!” This is a lot happening at once.

Given our context today, this little piece from St. Paul’s letter to the people of Philippi can seem almost too sweet, too “Pollyanna-ish.” Almost as if he is telling them to just think “nice thoughts” and everything will be fine. Paul, I suspect, knew quite well it wasn’t that simple.

When Paul wrote this letter the Philippians were going through their own stresses — the usual ones for Paul’s communities: false teachers coming along and teaching against Paul’s original teachings – taking healthy communities and tearing them apart from within. Even more importantly, Paul himself was in prison when he wrote this letter, and Roman prisons were no fun place to be.

Paul is decidedly NOT telling them to just think nice thoughts. Instead, he is telling them to control their thoughts. It is precisely in such times of stress that our thoughts too easily turn to blame and anger — or to sadness and despair — all those things that end up tearing families and nations — and our own lives — apart. It is precisely in these times that we need to work at keeping our thinking on whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.

Times of stress are exactly when we need to keep our thoughts on the admirable and right, not on depression and name-calling. This is what Jesus spoke of when he said that anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, or anyone who calls another “fool” is liable to punishment.

This is metaphor. Jesus, I’m fairly sure, doesn’t mean these words literally, but when we allow ourselves that kind of angry thinking or speaking, we are damaging the fabric not only of our communities, but even more, we are damaging ourselves. Carried to extremes, our anger makes us even more distraught and can even make us physically unwell. Most importantly, we are weakening our own connection to the Holy Spirit within us, and we allow the wrong an even stronger hold on us.

Anger, for some reason, seems so often to be an easier response than compassion or wisdom. Push our buttons and anger – or maybe it’s sidekick, worry – are right there. We’re ready to judge people, ready to label people. Ready to despise people – toss them aside because we don’t agree with them, because we want a different result, because we are frightened.

Paul is telling us — as Jesus did before him — to control our thinking by consciously focusing on the good and not on the bad. We do not need to allow anger to be our default. This is not the way to build the kingdom of God. The people we disagree with are still, and always, God’s beloved children, too.

Focusing on what is good – what is noble, what is true – is not sticking our heads in the sand. It is reminding ourselves that we live in God’s world – and we live here by God’s rules. We do not have to lower ourselves to sneering at each other – that’s always a choice we make.

Used can move us to the right things – anger at the abuse of innocents, anger at the unfairness built into our systems, anger at inequality. But anger itself is not the goal – the goal is to be moved to do the right things, the good things.

Anger is not a place to live our lives. It is a goad to move us to action, to change the wrongs and lift up the rights, and to do this we must be familiar with the right, the good, the admirable. How else can we work to get our world there if we don’t know them well ourselves?

Go back and re-read Paul's list. Keep your mind on these things, he says — work on it, if you have to, practice it daily — go out of your way to find them, be conscious of where your mind dwells — and the God of peace will be with you.

Thanks be to God.

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TRICKSTER PARABLES

SOWING SEEDS, REAPING GRACE

Justice and the Bible

KEEP YOUR MIND ON THESE THINGS

Rev. Cherie Marckx

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