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The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
A Sermon by
Fr. Daniels
on
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
✛
Parables of the Kingdom of Heaven
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There was a prominent stained glass window in the church where I grew up. It depicted heaven. It was a beautiful window to behold, all clouds and angels, loosely based on the description of the heavenly Jerusalem in the book of Revelation. The detail that has stuck with me the most is the wide streets and tall buildings in the distance: the streets were paved with gold, and the buildings were a gleaming silver.
It is a fine image, as images go. It makes the worthwhile point that the most coveted things on earth are common things in heaven. Things like gold seem important nowadays, for example, but they are marginal in the presence of God. Similarly, what is sometimes marginalized, or even persecuted, on earth is at the center of everything in heaven: the crucified and risen Lord, who welcomes redeemed sinners with open arms. In terms of images in stained glass windows, one could do much worse than this, contemplating the city of God.
This image from Revelation, though, is not the same kind of image that Jesus describes in the gospel of Saint Matthew, as we heard in today’s reading. The “kingdom of heaven” is likened unto a number of things in this series of parables, but none of them has anything to do with streets of gold. The kingdom of heaven is like unto five things here: like a grain of mustard seed; like leaven; like treasure hid in a field; like a merchant finding a pearl; like a net cast into the sea.
The kingdom of heaven, in other words is like unto a lot of things, a lot of activities, that I do not know very much about. Even if I did, however, I am still not sure that would clear up the matter too much. Because Jesus is not talking about what is to come, the way my stained glass window was. He speaks about the kingdom of heaven in the present tense. Not “the kingdom of heaven will be like” but “the kingdom of heaven is like” this or that. And he does not say, “the kingdom of heaven is like this somewhere far away” either. These parables are not the first time the “kingdom of heaven” is mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew. The first two times it is used, it is spoken first by John the Baptist, and then by Jesus himself, and both of them say the same thing, in the same words. Both preach, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The kingdom of heaven is not far off, in other words, in the realms of fluffy clouds and gold streets, but “at hand.” When John the Baptist and Jesus are saying it, it is at hand in a way that it had not been before.
When Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto” this or that, he is speaking of himself. His incarnation is the coming of the kingdom of heaven, and his second coming is its fulfillment. This is what is apocalyptic about our Christian faith: that Jesus has come, and will come, but the essential work has already been done, by him and in him. The Kingdom of Heaven already is, because Jesus lives.
It is in that light that we read these parables about the kingdom.
In this is the great surprise of the mustard seed in the first parable, which would not be expected to be some great contributor to a field’s ecosystem. Yet, in the fullness of time, it prospered so much that it was able to be the source of life and health for other things; other things found their home there, including all the birds of the air. Not much would have necessarily been expected of the humble Jesus of Nazareth, necessarily, but, being hoisted onto a tree, he became the source of all life.
This plan of salvation was in process from the beginning, like leaven doing its work, in the second parable. From time immemorial, it was God’s providential plan to draw people into relationship with him. This plan was hidden within the passage of time. Without being known about, the plan was working, and all creation participated in it: Israel’s following the Lord; the Gentiles who facilitated their flourishing, however unwittingly; even the disobedience of God’s people was used to bring to light God’s faithfulness. The leaven of God’s redemption was hidden within the measures of meal, within the stories of history, until, with Jesus, it became known and obvious, and all people are welcome to the feast of leavened bread, the bread of heaven, prepared from the foundation of the world.
For one who finds this great gift of God’s redemption, it is so valuable that all who truly recognize it for what it is will give up everything they have in order to participate in it. The man plowing in the field in the third parable saw it—quite accidentally, not through his own treasure-discerning skills, but he just literally ran into it by the grace of God—but he recognized it for what it was, the greatest gift, so he sold everything he had to enjoy it.
However, it is not as if relationship with Jesus can only be a matter of luck, as if it is solely arbitrary. Less accidental was the man already searching for the greatest pearl in the fourth parable. He looked and looked, and eventually he found it. He found what he was looking for. His response was like that of the treasure-finding farmer: he gave up everything he owned in order to have it. The revelation of God in Christ is the ultimate end of all searching, all quests. All roads, dutifully followed, find their end there. Some people come by faith very easily, like our farmer in the field. They stumble over it while going about their day and then it is theirs. Others struggle for faith, or struggle with faith. At the end of the day, either one is fine. By their fruits they can be judged, not by how easily or difficult they found the fruit-growing process itself.
Then we must ask, what is to become of our parable’s characters, who live life in recognition that this is the kingdom of heaven, that in Christ all things have their end? How should they live? How should we live? After all, we are still citizens of kingdoms of the earth, in the world, even if we identify with the kingdom of heaven. It is not like one day we rejoice over the buried treasure, or the priceless pearl, and the next day is eternal bliss. No, we are in the in-between time, and there will always be a tension between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdoms of the world. The Christian remains in the world, just as the net is thrown into the sea, and gathers it up everything in it, as in the fifth parable. But we then separate the good things from the bad things, with our eye on the kingdom. The practices that facilitate a relationship with God in Christ are cherished, while those practices that lead to sin are set aside.
So it shall be at the end of the world, as the parable continues. We still live in communities, we still have relationships, we still employ the things of the world. perhaps the baker went on baking, the farmer went on farming, the merchant continued his business. However, after their experiences, hope, faith, and love become the standards by which they interacted with the world. They determine the way our life together is lived out. Those things that are destructive, selfish, or dishonest, have no place there, and they will be cast into the furnace of fire. Because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It lives in the midst of us (Luke 17:21), and we live in the reality of it.
This is good for us to be reminded of. As you and I go about our daily life and work, we do so in the kingdom of heaven. That is true right now: as we bake, or farm, or do our business, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When we pray, our prayers are not sent far off somewhere. They are directed to the one who was made flesh and dwelt among us, and dwells with us still. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, because Jesus is at hand. His presence may be hidden for a moment, like leaven doing its work invisible to the naked eye, but in time the crucified and risen Lord will be seen to be at the center of everything. When we read the scriptures, when we worship together, we can do so with joy, because we have been given the greatest of all treasures.
So repent, and be joyful: the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
