24 July 2011 Discovering Joy Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Six times in these readings Jesus tells us what the kingdom of heaven is like. Yet, even after six examples, I’m not sure I really know what I am supposed to know.
I know what a mustard seed is and what yeast is. I can imagine a treasure hidden in a field. A merchant in search of fine pearls sounds reasonable, and I know what a fishing net is.
To say that God’s kingdom is like these things confuses me. Each is so very different. They seem to have nothing in common. How can they all be like the kingdom of heaven?
If I take this claim literally, then God’s kingdom may be these everyday things. Seeds, yeast, treasure, pearls and fishing nets. God’s kingdom, if normal stuff, must be a here and now place and not something we would call heaven or someplace ‘out there’ in another world.
If on the other hand I remember these are parables and that parables have a deeper meaning, then the kingdom could just as well be here or in heaven or “out there” in another world.
Theologians, folk who study about God, seem to think the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven as Matthew calls it, may be a sort of ideal utopian place very different from this world. They say this worldly existence has too much pain and suffering sadness and sorrow to be God’s kingdom of love and happiness. If this is the case the kingdom surely must be a kingdom to come in the future. Others, as we might imagine, disagree as they point to Jesus’ own claim that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near.
I don’t know, this world or another world, the future or now. Do we hear our deafening confusion or is it just me?
Perhaps knowing the truth about a location or time for the kingdom of heaven is illusive for a reason. Perhaps this ideal utopian kingdom is, like many other wonderful truths about God, a mysterious reality. A reality true enough, but a mysterious one.
Actually a mysterious reality may make the most sense. We are after all talking about the kingdom of The Sovereign Monarch, God. There really is no other kingdom on earth to compare to God’s and we’ll have to wait to know about heaven. At best we dream up an analogy of a kingdom and try and apply it. It is common for us to create our own prescripted kingdom world isn’t it. We’ve been known to do that once or twice a day. But the truth is an analogy will never be like the real thing.
Or might we study a parable and consider the only one who really would know its meaning is God. That is what we should do. Let God teach us.
In Matthew’s gospel reading this morning, Jesus gives us several examples of what the kingdom ‘is like.’ I think I missed that. Jesus says this is what the kingdom ‘is like’, not what it actually is. Close, but not exactly. The mystery stays in play.
The first two parables, the ones about the mustard seed and the yeast, are different from the others. In these parables something of surprising size or substance is found to produce unexpected results. The mustard seed, the smallest seed, becomes the greatest of shrubs and then even becomes a tree. The yeast, a catalyst for leavening, is mixed with a lot of flour until it all becomes leavened. In these examples the kingdom of heaven is like a known quantity with unpredictable or unexplainable results.
We begin life thinking we know who we are, with a clearly perceived purpose, no different than everyone else and then we find ourselves in love with Jesus and our life is flipped on its head with unpredictable or unexplainable results.
Kingdom living begins with our intention to discover what God is about. Like the parent proud of their adventurous child, God smiles at our efforts. God smiles and God actually encourages our seeking, our quest for discovery. All along the way God is filling our world, each of our lives, with grace, for we too become sought after.
Rick Warren, author of the popular book, “The Purpose Driven Life”, reminds us, “the purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind or even you happiness.” The truth is God seeks after us solely for God’s purposes and so often we find ourselves living a life we never expected.
The next two parables, the ones about the treasure hidden and the pearl merchant, are also different. In these parables something of surprising value is found. Having found, our been found in this way may bring us to new places of beauty. Surprising us with treasures hidden, pieces of life that, once found, produce great joy.
So, the kingdom of heaven is now like a surprising discover, expected or unexpected, that brings great joy. We may be on to something now. Joy is a good thing. Joy brings smiles, relieves worry, and produces a good night’s sleep.
The discovery of joy is so powerful though we are often moved to desire it at all costs, to even sell all that we have. Sounds unlikely doesn’t it? To sell it all for a life of joy and hope for what at times seems like at best an elusive kingdom. Surprising what we will do when searching for kingdom living.
It has been said many times, our Christian faith depends on our believing in the impossible. Otherwise our human imagination, our human expectations may limit the possibilities of the kingdom at hand. To overcome these limitations requires nothing less than unyielding faith in the impossible. Perhaps, a miracle.
Don’t be fooled, life is not really about treasure or pearls. But we know that’s not the point. We have our own weaknesses, our own treasure or pearl we would give everything for. We know what it is. We work extra hard for it, we give up things to have it, we cannot stop ourselves. We will even go into debt for it!
Scripture is right about these things though, it is not the object of our affection that drives us as much as it is the result of having it, the surprising joy it gives. You have all heard the story, the two happiest days for a boat owner, the day the boat is bought and the day it is sold. Joy to have it, joy to not have it. Joy is the constant feeling we search for. All else is changing. Discovering the one joy that never changes jut may be what Jesus is teaching in these parables. Discovering the one joy that will always bring joy sounds very much like kingdom language to me.
There is a story in the gospel of John of a wedding in Cana of Galilee. “And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’” We know Jesus’ response. He performs his first miracle turning water into wine. Here during a wedding, during a time of joy and celebration and gladness Jesus’ first act of kingdom building. It was not our grief, but our joy that Jesus first visited with a miracle. Surprised? Isn’t that how Jesus helps us find the purpose in our life? By surprising us in our discoveries about his kingdom.
The final parable, the one about the net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind, is also different. In this parable we hear a story that predicts for us how faithfulness works for God. The fish are drawn to shore and separated. The good fish are placed in a basket and the bad are thrown out.
There is a strong ethic in the kingdom of heaven about what is good and what is bad and judgment will separate the two. The good go in the basket, the bad are thrown out. The good are kept for a future meal, not so the bad. They are not invited to the feast.
The deeper meaning becomes personal when we consider how we are living our lives. How do we know what we do is right or wrong? Knowledge of the good will allow us to be kept, to be placed in the basket, to join in the surprising feast of the kingdom. Knowledge of the bad is equally important. It allows us to avoid being thrown out of the kingdom. Knowing the rules profoundly affects how we live our lives, what we do with our lives, who we worship in the process, and who we become. The faithful, in God’s eyes, live the good life. Choosing the righteous life, they reject evil and become a child of God.
Jesus teaches these things and much more. In addition to the here and now truth about God’s kingdom Jesus also predicts our future. At the end of the age angels will come and separate the righteous from the evil. The end of the age will catch us in its net and the angels will separate, they will judge. Will we be in the basket or not?
To help us Jesus asks, “Have you understood all this?” Why, no, not of our own wits have we. We need a whole lot more than just our own discernment. God offers us knowledge of the ultimate, absolute source of wisdom about the kingdom. God offers deeper meanings of God’s truth that can only come with the help from one true source. That help, that source is our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, through whom or what else might we understand what is good and what is evil. Jesus Christ, through whom or what else might we be surprised by great joy. Jesus Christ, with whom or what else might we discover the kingdom of heaven?
Tom Currie, pastor at our home church in Brenham before he left to pastor in Kerrville, says, the joy of discovery of the Kingdom of Heaven in our midst “sustains those who undertake the risk of… (Living)…the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Undertaking the risk of living the gospel of Jesus Christ we discover the Kingdom comes from the master of the household, our God, alive in our life through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our kingdom joy is the discovery that leads us to our God, who is the source of the only wisdom that matters at the end of the age. For it is then that the master of the household brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.
To undertake the risk of living the gospel of Jesus Christ will do this to us. When we reach into the Bible and pull out a text so old that “ancient” doesn’t begin to cover it. The text of scripture rises and unfolds into the air something ancient no more. The ancient treasure of joy lies in its uncanny ability to be resurrected in us to new life. To a new life where we undertake the risk of living a gospel which will become written on our human heart.
The gospel of Jesus Christ, written on our hearts, where through Jesus we understand surprising results, where through Jesus we are surprised by our faith in the impossible, where through Jesus we discover unchanging joy.
That sounds a lot like Kingdom language to me.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
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