Let us Pray: Breathe on us, O God, that we may be filled with your Spirit - and led by your living word - Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless the word of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. We ask it in his name. Amen.
Over the last three weeks we have heard Matthew retell a series of the parables of Jesus. This Sunday we end this series - with five of those parables
The first two parables use the images of mustard seed and yeast. Both describe how, from small, almost invisible beginnings, great things will come.
In the second group of parables we see God's realm is described as a treasure hidden in a field, something that brings about life-changing joy when it is discovered - and when we are prepared to sell everything we own to obtain it.
We see the kingdom of God described as being like a pearl of great price - a thing of great beauty, for which the merchant will give up all other pearls - so he or she may purchase it.
The final parable in this set describes the kingdom of God as being like a great net that catches all kinds of fish - which are then sorted out according to their quality - with the good ones being kept safe for the use of the Master and the bad ones being tossed away.
Finally Jesus tells his disciples how to respond to the Good News that he has just proclaimed. He tells them that those who are students of the Scriptures - those who study them diligently AND become disciples of the kingdom of God - will bring out treasures both old and new from the storeroom of heaven.
What to make of all this?
For me these parables speaks strongly about the nature of faith and what it does - and about the nature of God and what he does, and, as usual, God does far more than we normally give God credit for.
Jesus says in the first two parables that the smallest faith, the smallest seed of God, the tiny bit of the yeast of righteousness can transform itself and those things in contact with it - and so change the world.
As Jesus said at another time "If we have faith as small as mustard seed we can say to the mountains be removed - and it will remove itself."
Think of it
- just a little seed - from which can come a mighty bush.
- just a little leaven - and we can change the entire loaf.
When I was pastoring on the island of Peng Chau a few years back I met a man in one of the local restaurant one day. I was having a dimn sum meal like many Chinese people love to do, and eating tea at the same time - Chinese people drink a lot of tea in a year.
Anyway I was enjoying my dim sum meal and my nice hot green tea - and I met this man who lived in the Peng Chau community, but I, and many others in the church, really didn't know him - though he knew us - you know how it goes.
As we talked he asked me - "You're the Minister at the church on the island are you not?"
I told him that I was. And then I invited him to come out and give the church a try.
"Well", he said, "I don't really know. I haven't been to church for a long time. But I'll think about it for sure."
"What the heck", I said, "Just come and enjoy it - there's always room for one more sinner. That's what it is all about. We have all kinds of sinners at our church"
The next Sunday the man showed up at the church all by himself (his wife and children were in the Philippines. As he said, he hadn't been to church regularly for a long time. He hadn't felt right about himself. He didn't think God was too pleased with him. He was uncomfortable in the places where he used to feel at ease. --- That's how it is for a person when things aren't right - and to be frank - they aren't right quite a bit of the time for a whole lot of people.
But God calls us back - and he works with the tiniest seeds - the small bit of faith we have - and the littlest bit of His Word - whatever he can sneak right by all a person's guilt and anxiety and remorse and worldly busyness and plant.
For that man - the word that the church was full of sinners was all he needed to hear - for the seed of faith he had told him that churches that welcomed sinners would welcome him.
Nothing can stop the growing of the seed because the Power of God is in the seed. Nothing can prevent the leaven from spreading because The Power of God is in the leaven.
In God's kingdom the smallest and the least significant things have incredible power; the incredible power to affect the largest and most significant things and transform them.
From the small amount of yeast that represented that man's faith - the man I met in the local tea shop; and from the small seed of welcoming truth - the small seed of God that God let me plant that day, has come a mighty bush - or to switch parables - a mighty tasty loaf.
Today my tea drinking friend is an elder of another church on that island. And he is helping lead a revival there - a time of awakening - within the congregation - and - as is always the case when God's spirit is involved - without it.
Revival it is said "always begins with me" Something awakens in us - something gets us on fire - and suddenly marvellous things are happening - not only to us - but to those we come into contact with.
God takes a seed - he plants it - and slowly, but surely growth comes - until suddenly everyone notices it - we notice it and other people notice it in us.
The mustard seed is the word of the kingdom of God - the word of truth - the word that points the way to the living reality of God in Christ among us. And the yeast is the word that grows within us - the faith that rises up because that is the nature that God gave it - that rises up and makes new - that brings to life - that revives.
And praise God - I have seen a planting - and I have seen a sprouting - and now others, like the birds of the air - are suddenly frequent visitors because of that which God has wrought - people build their spiritual homes on the branches of faith that my tea drinking friend has produced because he listened to and held onto the word which came his way.
Which brings me to the next two parables.
In the next two parables Jesus calls us to treasure the message we have discovered in the field of life, to do everything to hold onto the wonder working seed and the miraculous yeast that we find, - or which finds us - for who can predict just how and why we would ever stumble upon treasure buried in the middle of a field? Or just how and why a pearl of tremendous beauty might come our way, even if we are merchants who deal in such things?
There has been many a pastor and many a faithful Christian in the pew - who have let go of the treasure - and whose joy and delight in God - and whose trust and confidence in God - has been not as tremendously beautiful as it once was.
We all know the facts of life. When a person finds something of great value he or she has a decision to make - to obtain that treasure - no matter what the cost - or to be content with the treasure that he or she already has.
Often what we do - is obtain the treasure - and then let it go.
We exchange it for lesser things - things that seem important at the time or maybe we just allow events to overwhelm us - so that the great treasure is once again buried in the field of our life.
And then, to mix up the parables of Jesus, we suddenly come to our senses and return home to our Father; we decide to repurchase the pearl; to once again lay claim to the treasure.
Hopefully we are not too late.
There is a word from God for us - a touch of the Spirit for us - an event for us - a person who comes to us for us - that is worth everything we have - So says Jesus!
Don't let it go by. Pick up - hold on to it - don't let go. It is a saving thing that makes all of one's life worthwhile.
The value of what God has given to us freely through his law and his prophets, the value of what God has buried in our hearts and our minds for us to find, what God has brought to us in the person of Christ and pours out upon us through his Spirit, is beyond everything. When we grasp it.
The challenge for us is to grasp it - to not only recognize what we see and hear as being important; but to take action - to hold on to it - to give everything we have for it - to stand - and then walk - and then run if need be - to that place where we can claim full ownership of it.
Hold on to the seeds cast your way - let them germinate - nurture them.
Take the yeast out of its container and risk losing it all by putting all of it into the dough of your life.
Sell everything and buy the whole field - get the pearl - and watch what happens.
What will happen is great. You'll be attacked and assaulted by doubters and naysayers. But you will see better things than you have seen before - and you will know a love and show a love that the people who live in the world can only dream about it.
Which flows into the last parable - the parable of the net - and of the judgement that comes once the net is drawn and landed on the shore of heaven.
God casts his net to catch us all - he gives us all a chance to be his - he reaches out to us - he seeks us - and as the parables we have looked at over the last three weeks - and the stories I have told indicate - he goes to great lengths to make us into the kind of catch he wants. He is patient with us. He allows the weeds to grow so that the wheat is not uprooted - he changes what appears to be beyond hope into something that is worthy of praise.
But still there is a time when the catch is landed and sorted for market, when the field is harvested and the wheat and the weeds are separated.
And God calls to heed the approaching of that time - to number our days - to have a holy fear - so that we might acquire a heart of wisdom.
What God has made good lasts forever. It is valued by the maker.
What turns out bad - and refuses to be reworked - revived - refashioned - by the Maker, perishes.
And so it should be.
"Do you understand all these things", Jesus asked his disciples when he finished speaking. "Do you understand what I have been telling you"
"Yes", they said, "We do."
So he told them "Every student of the Scriptures who becomes a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like someone who brings out new and old treasures from the storeroom."
There is a difference here drawn between being a student and being a disciple, between learning about something or knowing something and then actually doing it, between taking a stand and actually standing, and it is an important difference.
The one who becomes a disciple, the one not only learns about Christ, but who actually follows Christ, is one who discovers an abundance of treasure - treasure that is both old and new - and who displays it all for others to see, who values it all - and wants all the world to see it all.
In changing times it is good to know that the followers of Christ embrace what has gone by and recognize that which has just come has value as well.
There are so many treasures that God has sent our way - so many to value and embrace and hold up - the old law and the prophets with their guidance and their grace and the new law written in the heart by the Spirit of God, - the old rituals with their ability to calm and quieten the heart so that we may meet God, and the new ones which can energize and make fresh a tired soul, - the great grandmother with the wisdom of her age worn like a mantle upon her shoulders and the smallest child with his or her tremendous ability - born of innocence - to see God where no one else can.
God's treasure, it is said in Scripture, is contained in earthen vessels, in perishable - very mortal containers - and so the disciples of Christ value one another - and what they have to offer - whether it be old or new or in between.
There is a great mercy spoken of in all the parables we have heard. A great love, a great power, a great God, are pointed to in them.
It is worth everything and when embraced - leads to everything of importance in this world and in the next.
Blessed be God - day by day. Amen
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