Mustard seed and more (Matthew 13)

    “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed...it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it...becomes a tree…” (Matthew 13: 31-32).

    Today’s Gospel is put together from verses 31 to 33, and verses 44 to 52,  of chapter 13 of Matthew’s Gospel. The reading skips over Jesus’s remarks on The Use of Parables, and his explanation of the Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat, or Wheat and Tares, as the old translation has it. Today’s reading lists five short parables: the Mustard Seed, the Yeast, the Treasure hidden in a field, the Pearl of great value (or great price, as the old translation says), and finally, the Net thrown into the sea. I’ll say a few words about each parable.  

          The parable of the mustard seed can be understood in a few ways. The first way, perhaps the obvious natural meaning, is that small actions can lead to great consequences --- in this case, an individual choice to accept the message of the kingdom of God will help spread the kingdom, here called a tree, in which countless numbers of people, here called birds of the air, can nest, and themselves bring more souls to the kingdom.

    Secondly, I’m reminded of what the Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov said, “Acquire the spirit of peace, and thousands will be saved around you.” Acquire the spiritual seed of peace, if I may put it that way, plant it in the soul, or rather, nurture the seed that is already there, that God has planted in the center of our being, and help it to grow into the spiritual tree that countless others will be able to find a home in. The spiritual tree is that endless series of consequences that flow from our choice to nurture the seed of the kingdom that has been planted in us. I’m reminded of what’s called the butterfly effect, the notion that a butterfly changing course over the Amazon can lead to a typhoon over the Pacific six months later. The mustard seed of the kingdom is like that, a very small thing leading to a very large outcome, the growth of the kingdom.

    The Parable of the Yeast has a similar meaning, a very small thing, practically invisible in this case, wild yeast  eventually leavening three measures of flour, or about three pints, as my commentary says. Again, a small action leads to large consequences, the word of the kingdom leads to transformation of the surrounding society, and eventually the whole world, “until all  of it was leavened,” as the Gospel says.

    So far we’ve heard about very small things, invisible, hidden things, leading to large, visible outcomes. The next hidden thing is the treasure in a field, “which someone found and hid; then...he sells all that he has and buys that field.” This hiding of the treasure is a kind of planting, although it’s hard to know what to make of such a devious manoeuvre. One way to understand this is to think of the hidden treasure as the seed of the kingdom planted in us, which we need to do whatever is necessary to make grow. In this case, “selling all that he has and buying the field” is a way of saying “letting go of everything which can get in the way of letting the seed, the yeast, the hidden treasure, grow and spread the kingdom.”

    The pearl of great value, another small item, but not invisible or hidden like the seed or the yeast or the treasure, has a similar meaning. Like the treasure, it encourages the merchant to sell all that he has, to buy it. The theme here is the same: let go of everything which gets in the way of the spread of the kingdom, of everything which gets in the way of the growth of that treasure in the soul, which will grow into the kingdom, that is, into life with God in this world and in eternity.

    We now come to the parable of the net thrown into the sea, which catches fish of every kind. There’s a change of tone here, a change in the direction of judgement, of sorting bad fish from good and casting the bad “into the furnace of fire.” This is a reminder of what we may think of as the shadow side of the parables, the realization that bad choices, perhaps small, hidden, invisible ones, can have huge consequences, just as good choices do. We create our outcomes, sometimes at least, both in this world and in eternity. We need not take the “furnace of fire” literally, but we should keep in mind the idea behind it, that it is possible not to make the best use of the seed, the yeast, the pearl, the treasure, that we have been given.

    Jesus reinforces the need to understand the parables when he says, “every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom...brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” What is old is the reality that the seed of the kingdom, invisible, small, hidden, is planted  in each of us from the beginning; what is new, as Jesus says in the skipped-over section of today’s reading, he makes explicit in his teaching, “I will...speak in parables, I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.” And so he has. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.” Amen. (29-30.VII.17.Adv.)

   

Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13)

      “But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” Matthew 13:23

       In the Name etc..

     The 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel contains several parables, explanations of a few of them, and a discussion of their purpose. The compilers of our lectionary, in putting together today’s reading, chose the Parable of the Sower and Our Lord’s own explanation of its meaning, verses 1 through 9, and verses 18 through 23. To do this, they skipped over the section explaining the Purpose of the Parables. This puts a preacher in the awkward position of having to say something about the meaning of the parable, simultaneously commenting on Jesus’s interpretation and ignoring Jesus’s statement of his purpose. The ancient editors of the Gospel arranged texts the way they did for good reasons, which makes the arrangement part of their message, and that makes it necessary for us to discern what that message may be. So I’ll talk about the parable, and Jesus’s explanation. And I’ll talk a little about the skipped bit, Jesus’s statement of his purpose in verses 10 through 17.

    “A sower went out to sow...some seeds fell on the path...other seeds fell on rocky ground...other seeds fell among thorns...other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain...Let anyone with ears, listen!” That is my abbreviated version of the parable. The natural meaning is easy to understand: seeds sown on rough ground won’t grow much, and seeds sown on good soil will bring forth grain, lots of it. And Jesus’s explanation of the meaning is easy to follow too. “Hear then,” he says, “hear.” Note that word. The path: the place where the evil one tempts  those who don’t understand the word of the kingdom (that is what the seed is: the word of the kingdom). Rocky ground: the shallow enthusiasm of those fall away at the first sign of trouble. Thorns: the cares of the world and the lure of wealth, which distract from the word of the kingdom, and lastly, the Good Soil, which is the one who hears the word and understands it. Notice how the story is framed: it begins with one who hears and does not understand, and ends with one who does hear and understand.

    Who is the sower in this story? We normally take the sower to be Jesus, or perhaps John the Baptist or the prophets. John and Jesus both proclaimed the coming of the kingdom. The analogies between the types of ground and the types of people who hear the word of the kingdom are easy to understand, and certainly come out of the experience of Jesus and John and the kinds of people they encountered. And the analogies match our own experience too. We recognize the people and situations that Jesus is talking about.     

     Are we one or more of the people in the story? We may naturally think of ourselves as not understanding the word, or of ditching it at the first sign of trouble, or even of letting worldly interests and the lure of money take the place of the word. Or are we the ones who hear the word of the kingdom, understand  it, and accept it? At this point, we are no longer the people who don’t understand, or who turn and run, or who give up the kingdom for the goods of this world. We become, we are, sowers of the seed, proclaimers of the word of the kingdom ourselves. We are no longer only recipients of the word, but are one with Jesus and John in proclaiming it. That is what Jesus is getting at when he says, “Let anyone with ears, listen!” The main point of the parable is this: become sowers of the seed, of the word of the kingdom. That is what Jesus wants us to hear.

    There is a progression in this story, steps in a spiritual journey. Hearers of the word may pass from misunderstanding, to another stage, enthusiastic but shallow understanding, where they need to learn to overcome threats, to a third level, where they need to overcome the powerful attraction of worldly goods, to reach a fourth level, where they become disciples of mature understanding, who have passed through threats and temptations, to become  those “who indeed bear fruit.” At this stage, we are not merely recipients of the word, the seed. We are spreading the word of the kingdom; we are, in fact, signs of the kingdom, part of the kingdom.

    I said that I would say something about the skipped bit, verses 10 through 17, where Jesus talks about the purpose of the parables. The disciples ask him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”  He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” He goes on for several lines, even quoting Isaiah, to make it clear just how completely ignorant the crowd is, when it comes to knowledge of the kingdom. It sounds as if, on the surface, Jesus wants to keep the crowds from knowing about the kingdom, but this is not true. Jesus is speaking to the crowds using images and stories that they can follow, to teach them about the kingdom. The disciples already know about the kingdom; as Jesus said to them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom.” Jesus likely taught them privately, from his own experience. We may think of the disciples as having attained a fifth step in their spiritual journey, perhaps after passing through the four steps of the sowing of the word, as we heard in the parable. Jesus confirms this when he says, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” They have been empowered to sow the seed of the word of the kingdom, and to help others to see and to hear, and to sow the seed as well. May we attain this level of discipleship. May we also bear fruit and yield, some thirtyfold, some sixty, some a hundredfold.  Amen. (16.VII.17.Adv.)

(Note: No real farmer would scatter seed anywhere but on fertile ground. And in modern scientific agriculture, a hundredfold increase would be impossible; fortyfold would be a maximum possible increase.)

    

   

Children in the Marketplace (Matthew 11)

       The compilers of the lectionary handed preachers an interesting problem when they put together today’s Gospel reading, which comprises verses 16 to 19, and then verses 25 to 30 of Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 11. They skipped the section titled ‘Woes to Unrepentant Cities’. The reading begins with the conclusion --- a conclusion, not an introduction --- to the section titled ‘Jesus praises John the Baptist’, and ends with Jesus’s prayer to the Father, and then adds a few more lines. It is my task to find the thread that ties this  arrangement together.

    “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’”  The “children” are offering their services as musicians and professional mourners, and they have no takers. The situation is one of a disconnect between ‘message sent’ and ‘message received’: there is no match between what is on offer and what is wanted. Jesus is using this story to say that the message of John the Baptist is not being heard. Just before today’s reading, Jesus says, “Let anyone with ears, listen!” The example of the children in the marketplace makes the point that people aren’t really listening, aren’t really getting what John is about. Jesus says, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’”. In other words, they totally miss the point. They miss the point about Jesus too, and ignore the total contradiction that their remarks reveal: “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard.’” The situation that emerges from these lines is one of inattention, confusion, spiritual deafness, in fact a refusal to open up to the spiritual reality before the people in the marketplace.

    It is significant that Jesus locates this story in a marketplace where children are the main characters, and where the goods on offer, so to speak, are dancing and mourning. We may think of dancing and mourning, flute playing and wailing, as representing opposites of our experience: carefree celebration, joy, freedom at one end, and at the other end, awareness of death. In a marketplace, that is,  in all the busy-ness and routines of daily life, we can ignore, even forget for a while, both dancing and mourning, flute playing and wailing. But the children, as children often do in their guileless way, remind us of the truth of our experience, that even in the marketplace we are not far from dancing and mourning, from flute playing and wailing, from freedom and the reality that limits it. And Jesus confirms the truth of this when he says, “Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Some ancient manuscripts say, “Wisdom is vindicated by her children.” Reality, in other words, is not far away, even in the marketplace, where we go to avoid it.

    As I mentioned, today’s reading skips over the section called ‘Woes to unrepentant cities’, woes which the cities will experience because they ignore the ‘deeds of power’ done in them. This section reinforces the point that Jesus makes earlier in the chapter. “Let anyone with ears, listen!” as he says. The cities ignore deeds of power, the same way people in the marketplace ignore the children.

    Jesus turns to his Father in prayer, in words that seem to contradict what he has said so far. “I thank you Father...because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants;” infants now, not just children in the marketplace, are getting the message. Jesus has just been urging people to listen, and is now apparently thankful that they aren’t. We may rightly ask, what is going on here?

    Jesus is saying that the wise and the intelligent need to rediscover the openness and immediacy of perception that children often have, before they, the wise and the intelligent, will be ready to hear, to perceive what the Father will reveal. When the Father hides a truth from humans, it is to prod us into letting go whatever would prevent us from perceiving it. The goal is not to drop wisdom and intelligence, but to prepare for new depths and new connections. Just as the minds of children are constantly developing new connections, so must the wise and the intelligent not imagine that spiritual growth has ceased, that new growth is not possible.

    And what does the Father reveal? Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” This is one of many statements of what our religion is about. In this case, it is about knowing the Father through the Son. This “knowing” is not a doctrinal statement, a form of words, an idea about which we may have opinions, but a living experience, in which we participate in the divine life, as members of the Body of the Son, who has incorporated us into himself in baptism, and who is transfiguring us in the eucharist into his mystical Body. And in fact the Son chooses to reveal the Father to everyone, as it says in John’s Gospel, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”

    Jesus goes on to say, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” One burden we can lay down, so that we can rest in Christ, is the burden of the marketplace, all the busy-ness and distractions and routines of life that we use to avoid both the dancing and the mourning that the children, the infants, remind us of. Jesus invites us to lay down that burden, and to take up another, much lighter one. He says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me...for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” His yoke, his burden, is participation in his life, which is what “knowing the Father” means, both now and in eternity. Amen.  (8-9.VII.17. Adv.)