He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:
“I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.”
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen! Matthew 13:24-44 (NRSV)
Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.
How many of you have ever heard of Aesop’s Fables? When I was younger, they were some of my favorite little stories to read. Can you remember the names of some of them? The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse; The Owl and the Grasshopper; The Hare and the Tortoise - to name just a few. So, do you remember how they were structured? There would be a short little story that was written to teach a lesson. Then, at the end of each of the stories, there was a short statement that was intended to summarize the lesson of the story.
Here’s one example. The fable of “The Fox and the Grapes.”
A Fox one day spied a beautiful bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine that had grown along the branches of a tree. The grapes seemed ready to burst with juice, and the Fox’s mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them.
The bunch hung from a high branch, and the Fox had to jump for it. The first time he jumped he missed it by a long way. So he walked off a short distance and took a running leap at it, only to fall short once more. Again and again he tried, but in vain.
Now he sat down and looked at the grapes in disgust. “What a fool I am!” he said. “Here I am wearing myself out to get a bunch of sour grapes that are not worth going for.” And off he walked very, very, scornfully.
Moral: There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach.
Aesop’s fables are examples of morality tales. Stories told to teach us a lesson or to express some moral idea that is intended to help us be better people.
Today’s lesson from Matthew 13 consists of three small stories. Parables. The Parable of the Weeds in the Field, the Parable of the Mustard Seed, and the Parable of the Leaven or the Yeast. It’s easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that parables are like Aesop’s fables. That they are morality tales - ethical stories intend to teach us the right and wrong about God’s kingdom. To tell us the right and wrong ways to live in God’s kingdom.
But parables are not morality tales. They are not intended to give us clear answers. In fact, they are just the opposite. They are intended to challenge our thinking. To raise questions for us. To make us doubt.
Perhaps the best definition of a parable is found on the front page of your insert. It is a definition from C. H. Dodd, written originally in 1936. “At its simplest, a parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it [the mind] into active thought.” Parables are not intended to give us easy answers. So, if in reading a parable, you reach an easy interpretation, then you are probably missing the entire point.
So, let’s see how this definition fits with the three parables in today’s lesson. First, it is a metaphor that is drawn from nature or common life. Now, it is important to understand that the entire parable - not just the elements in it - are the metaphor. In Jesus’ teaching, parables are usually metaphors for God’s reign. This is so in today’s parables. For example, the reign of God is not being compared just to a mustard seed. But, it’s being compared to the entire metaphor - to the whole story.
Within each parable there will be symbols or content that will be familiar to the listener. It’s why, in Jesus’ parables, so many of them are focused on farming, because Jesus was in the rural areas outside of Jerusalem, preaching in an agricultural area. Sowing seed was familiar to them. Making bread with yeast was familiar to them. Weeds growing in fields would have been a common experience for his listeners.
Second. The parable “arrests the hearer by its vividness or strangeness.” Most parables have a twist to them. An unexpected element. Something uncommon that appears in the image that is drawn from common life. Something that we, with our 21st century sensibilities, might miss if we are not careful. For example, any person living in the rural areas of the ancient Mediterranean world would have know that there is no such thing as a mustard “tree.” There were large mustard shrubs, but not trees.
In another example, the Parable of the Yeast opens with a woman using leaven. This would not be unusual for the listeners, who would assume that she was making the daily loaf of bread for her family. But, what would catch their attention, would be the amount of flour she was using. Three measures, our story tells us. This is the equivalent of about 60 pounds of flour. An amount that would easily make over a hundred loaves of bread.
And, then, there is the Parable of the Weeds. If you truly wanted to ruin someone’s field, would planting weeds really be the best strategy? Wouldn’t you, instead, pull out the wheat? And, certainly, every gardener know that you pull the weeds as soon as you see them to help your crop grow better. But, in this parable, the farmer waits until the harvest is ready to gather, to separate and, then, burn the weeds.
Third aspect of the definition. The parable "leaves the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise interpretation or application." This is the signal that these are not simply morality tales. Instead of giving us that “Aha!” moment, they give us a big “Huh?” This was clearly evident last week in our conversation in Adult Forum on the Parable of the Weeds. There were a lot of questions. And not very many answers. Which is exactly what the parable is intended to do. To create question or doubt in our minds about the precise meaning. It’s no wonder why, in the ancient world, the word “parable” meant riddle.
Fourth and final part of the definition. The purpose of the parable is "to tease the mind into active thought" even to the point of altering one’s world-view. This means that parables are intended to create puzzlement for us about the overall logic of the story. It makes no sense. Yet, if we remember that parables are intended to help us understand God’s reign, and, if we remember from the Jesus’ first teaching in the Sermon on the Mount about how God’s reign is a great reversal from that of the world - where things are upside-down, where the priorities of God’s kingdom are completely opposite from those of the world - then, and only then, will we begin to understand the parable and, particularly, the parable as a metaphor for the unexpected nature of God’s reign.
So, what is the answer then for today’s lesson? I would first suggest that there might be many different interpretations. Our understanding of each parable is often dependent upon where we see ourselves in the story. That understanding can be turned completely upside down if we put ourselves in another place in the story. So, there could likely be many possibilities.
Let me, however, suggest a couple. First, the Parable of the Weeds is not at all about who gets into heaven and who doesn’t. Notice, in Jesus’ interpretation of it later for the disciples, he leaves out one of the key images of the story. The sower is the Son of the human. The field is the world. The good seed are the children of God’s reign. The enemy is the evil one. The bad seed are the children of the evil one. But, who are the slaves? This missing element would likely have invited Jesus’ disciples to see themselves represented in the parable by the slaves. Slaves who were concerned about the field (or the world). Who asked if they should do something about the weeds and were told no. This is reminder for us of the “already and not yet” nature of God’s kingdom. The “already” which requires us to live in the tension of a world where both good and evil exist. And the “not yet” which is a picture of the future fullness of God’s reign, where only good will exist. It is not our job to resolve the tension between the already and the not yet. It is the work of the farmer - of God’s Son - and not ours to resolve it.
And then, there are the two, nearly synonymous, parables about growth. Both of these parables are built around the image of contrast - that tiny beginnings mask the hidden power of God to bring about endings of growth that is beyond our own wildest imagination. That the beginning will be radically different from the ending. As Wes Allen, a New Testament professor at Lexington Theological Seminary writes, “To be a follower of Christ is to know God’s reign on earth already, but not fully, to know the mustard seed, but not yet the mustard tree. We live in the light of God’s salvific and liberating providence, but in the midst of the oppression of the reign of Caesar with all of the poverty, suffering, evil and death that comes with it.”
This is what the reign of God looks like. In the present already and the future not yet. It's what these parables point to.
Let us live into that tension and continue our work as God’s people, trusting in the light of God’s saving grace and in the hidden power of God to bring about the fullness of God’s kingdom. May it be so! Amen.
Preached February 17, 2019, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Epiphany 6.
Readings: Matthew 13:24-44, Psalm 84:1-7.
“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Matt. 6:1-20 NRSV)
Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator; Jesus, our Redeemer; and the Holy Spirit, our Sustainer. Amen.
Good morning! Welcome to week 2 in our sermon series on “Learning to Follow.” We’re spending 3 weeks in chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew, a series of teachings called the Sermon on the Mount.
Last week, we focused on chapter 5, in which we saw the great reversal that is God’s kingdom. That, unlike the world, which values “winners,” God values the losers. The broken, who are among us and out in our world. Those on the margins.
We also learned that, as God’s forgiven and called people, our lives are also to be lives of great reversals. Lives where our focus is on God. And, then, lives in the world as salt and light. Salt meaning catalyst. Light meaning illumination. So, to be people who get things going and then who lead the way in the world.
So, how do we do this? It’s easy for me to stand up here and tell you to be salt and light. To get things going and to lead the way. But, if you’re at all the practical person that I am, I wonder how we become people like this. What are the steps? What’s the step-by-step instruction to transform us into God’s salt and light? How do we learn to follow?
These are the questions Jesus focuses on in today’s lesson. Now, if you were listening carefully, you heard three steps. Three practices that Jesus lays out in this teaching. What are they?
In the verse 2, Jesus talks about almsgiving. What is almsgiving? Yes, it is giving money to the poor. Practice number one.
Then, near the end of our reading, in verse 16, Jesus gives instruction on fasting. Practice number two.
Finally, in the heart of today’s reading and, interestingly, in the exact center of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches about prayer. Practice number 3. And, given its location in the middle of Jesus’ teaching, it is the focal point. The most important of the three. Prayer.
So, who of you would like to open our time of study today with a prayer? Exactly as I thought. None of you are chomping at the bit to pray, particularly, to pray out loud. I know exactly how you feel. Because I was once in your place. Thinking that praying out loud was for the professionals, right? That’s why we train up pastors to lead our worship, to prepare the prayers for us to be used in worship. Because they’re the professionals!
I have to share with you that earlier this week, I was in a gathering of pastors from our conference - all Lutherans, all experienced pastors, all who have been doing this for awhile. And, when, our conference dean invited one of us to say the opening prayer, we were all just like you. Completely silent. So much for being the “professionals!”
Why are so many of us so afraid of prayer? Perhaps we think that the words we pray aren’t good enough, aren’t sophisticated enough. Or perhaps we think that our simple, 2-3 sentence prayer is not long enough. After all, if we pray to God, to a deity who we profess to be all powerful, all knowing, and all present - doesn’t God deserve some long, flowery prayer from us? (I remember once being at a rally for workers and a local pastor was invited to open the rally with a prayer. It went on and on and on. To the point that I began to pray to God, “Please God, let this prayer end!”)
So, I found it really interesting this week, as I studied this text, that things weren’t much different in Jesus’ day. In verse 7 of today’s reading, Jesus begins his remarks on prayer with this sentence, “When you pray, don’t pile up a jumbled heap of words! That’s what the Gentiles do. They reckon that the more they say, the more they are likely to be heard.”
That was the practice of Jesus’ day in the non-Jewish world. We know from many writings of that time that many non-Jews used a particular formula in their prayers. That they would use long, complicated magic words that they would repeat over and over and over again. They did this because they believed that this would eventually tire out their gods and goddesses to the point that they would eventually relent and give what was asked. They also believed that, unless what one was praying for was given in the greatest possible detail, it was a very real possibility that the wrong favor would be granted. It’s like a child who was not just asking for an animated stuffed animal this past Christmas, but, a child asking, specifically, for Bella, a Fingerlings Hugs - the Advanced Interactive Plush Baby Monkey Pet by WowWee. Just to ensure that she would get what she wanted.
So, Jesus teaches a very different prayer practice. Because Jesus teaches about a very different kind of God. One who already knows what we need even before we ask. One who doesn’t need to be worn down, but who is ready to provide. And one who seeks to be in a relationship with us that is the same as that of a father or a mother to a child. And, so, Jesus gives the crowd - his many followers - a framework for prayer.
Notice I said a framework. Because as Jesus introduces this prayer that we know by heart, he doesn’t necessarily say to use this prayer, but to “pray, then, in this way.” Like this. Not word for word, necessarily. But, using this framework. A simple four part framework that, by the way, Jesus gives in Aramaic. The language of the people. Instead of Hebrew, the language of the synagogue. Which, in itself, is a signal to us that God doesn’t want us to use some magic formula, but to talk to God - the creator of the universe - using our own words and our own language.
First step in the framework. Jesus locates God above all. “Our Father in heaven.” This doesn’t mean a god who exists in some remote place or afterlife. Or a man-made idol. In Jesus’ day, this title for God took the Jewish people back to God’s acts in the Exodus. Acts of deliverance and rescue. Acts by a God who is over all things. Who loved them. And who loves us. Like a parent.
Second step. Jesus acknowledges God’s name as holy. In Israel, after the Babylonian exile, the divine name was regarded as too sacred to be said aloud. It was replaced with the Hebrew word Adonai (My Lord) and, then, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, with Kyrios, meaning Lord. When Jesus acknowledges the holiness of God’s name, he wants it to be as holy to us as it was to Israel. And that God’s name and the holiness of God name might be spread throughout the world. And spoken with reverence, not as some afterthought.
Third step. Jesus gives privilege to God’s kingdom and God’s will. “Your will be done. Your kingdom come.” In this step, Jesus sets God’s kingdom and God’s will as the priority. God’s kingdom, or God’s reign, brings deliverance and salvation, presence, restorative justice, peace, healing, joy, repentance, and return to God. These are the seven characteristics of God’s reign in Isaiah. We are to pray for it. That it might be accomplished. Not in heaven, where it already exists, but, here. On earth. Now.
Fourth step. Jesus invites us to pray for what we need. But, before we move further into this step, did you notice the focus of three of the four steps? The focal point of 75% of the prayer? Yep. It’s God. Why? Because God and God’s will are to be the priority. And, because God already knows what we need. So, while prayers for gifts of daily bread and material things we need in our lives, plus prayers for mercy - that we might forgive others to the extent that God has forgiven us - as well as, prayers that God might deliver us from trial and temptation and from the wicked...while all of these might be important for us mostly to calm our anxiety and our own lack of faith, for God these prayers for our needs are nearly superfluous. Because God is so attuned to us and our needs that we need not even ask for them.
There you have it. A four-point plan for prayer. A methodology for you and I to reach out to our God. Because that’s really what this is about, isn’t it? It’s about our relationship with God and God’s relationship with us. A relationship initiated and implemented by God through Jesus Christ. A relationship modeled by Jesus. A communal relationship. Because, did you notice that all of the pronouns other than those that refer to God are in the first person plural? Give us our daily bread. Lead us not into temptation. Forgive us. Not me.
Jesus is very practical. He knows that the more we engage in prayer, in talking to God, and in deepening our relationship with God, the more we will turn to God and seek to be among God’s people. To deepen our relationships together, which then lead to the other spiritual practices. Practices that lead us to action. To serve those on the margins - who are the priority in God’s kingdom. To give to the poor. To fast, so that we might fully understand what it feels like to be hungry.
Through prayer God changes us, turning us from our own greed and our own priorities to God’s priorities in God’s kingdom. Today. Now. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” May God make it so. Amen.
Preached February 3, 2019, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Epiphany 4.
Readings: Matthew 6:1-20; Psalm 20:7.
