First I have to say that it was on honor to be one of
Jennifer’s presenters
Tuesday
evening at her ordination to the priesthood.
We had a number of Emmanuelites there
assisting
in the liturgy and supplying food for the reception.
It was truly a great occasion for the five being ordained
and
the gathering of congregations from around the diocese.
The focus of an ordination is on being called to serve in
ministry
following
our Lord Jesus,
and
because the renewal of the baptismal covenant is also included
in
the liturgy,
we are reminded that we ALL are called to serve in
ministry – ordained or lay.
For us seasoned clergy each ordination is also an
opportunity
to
renew our own ordination vows along with the ordinands,
and
I personally take this seriously.
And one part of those vows, a
major part of those vows, is about Holy Scriptures.
I can quote from memory this vow:
“I
solemnly declare that I do believe
the
Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments
to
be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation…”
And the Bishop in the Examination asks the ordinands:
“Will
you be diligent in the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures,
and
in seeking the knowledge of such things
as
may make you a stronger and more able minister of Christ?”
Bishop Greg in his sermon also exhorted the ordinands:
“Do
not hinder the people you serve.”
Remember that with what I say next about the Gospel!
I have been ordained now for going on 30 years,
and
during that time I have seen some major changes in the church,
and I think that a lot of those changes were initiated,
enabled and supported
by
the women ordained to the priesthood.
And I do believe that the presence of women in the
priesthood
has
enriched us all greatly.
One of the most hopeful things I have seen is an increase
in awareness
about
the differences between “churchianity,” or ecclesiology,
and
a living, experienced faith that comes through
revelation
by the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection Presence of Jesus.
With that in mind I have the boldness to now preach what I
am about to say
about
the Gospel reading for today
as
it has been revealed to me by the Resurrection Spirit of our Lord.
The Gospel reading for today is the third in a three week
series
from
the 13th chapter of Matthew,
a whole long chapter of the parables of Jesus about the
Kingdom of Heaven.
Parables of the Kingdom/Parables of Grace
The
parables are always about the truth that is in Jesus,
that he is living out for us.
And
the parables are stories about a process at work in us.
They
are about our relationship with Jesus,
the
experience of the disciple in relationship to the Beloved.
In these parables watch out for the point of absurdity in each
parable,
and
look also for the expression of abundance.
Today
we have FIVE parables,
five
short, quick original pictures about the Kingdom of Heaven.
In
each is absurdity, and in each is abundance.
“The
Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed…”
a
small, tiny seed.
I’ve
seen fields of mustard growing –
four,
maybe five feet tall, good size bushes.
But
growing to become a tree?
Not
by any stretch of the imagination. Absurd.
Yet
the Kingdom grows way beyond expectation
and accommodates life, offering shelter,
abundantly useful.
“The
Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast…”
A
woman takes the yeast and adds it to the flour for a batch of bread,
but she uses three times the amount of flour
than usual.
She kneads the dough
and tucks it
into a warm corner of the kitchen to rise.
What
would you expect to have happened
when she comes back a couple of hours later?!
Someone
once told me of a mistake she had made in her recipe
when
making bread.
She
had put the bowl of dough in the warm oven to rise
only to come back later to see the
dough pushing against the oven door
ready
to ooze out into the rest of the kitchen.
Absurd
abundance and expansiveness.
“The
Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field…”
Now
listen and tell me if this sounds like
recommended ethics for business transactions.
Someone
discovers treasure in a field that does not belong to him.
So
he obscures it from sight, so that others wouldn’t see it,
until he himself can gather his resources
and carry out the transaction necessary to
buy the field,
so that he
can then claim the treasure as his own.
Is
Jesus recommending shady business deals, insider trading and the like?!
Absurd.
But
the Kingdom is like the treasure,
something so valuable that when its presence
is recognized
it
drives one to do whatever is necessary
to get that
treasure.
It
becomes the ultimate carrot
so that we might be filled with such yearning
for it
and be drawn into relentless pursuit of it.
The
treasure is abundance;
the treasure
is the Teacher, the Beloved, Jesus.
“Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like a
merchant in search of fine pearls…”
Finally
he finds what he has been looking for –
THE Pearl, the biggest, finest pearl in all
creation.
This
pearl is so valuable to the merchant, so precious, so beloved
that he must have it no matter that it takes
all that he has
– house, car, computer, TV, clothes,
cash value
of his pension fund and life insurance, everything.
Once
he has that pearl, then what?
The
pearl is useless for providing him life support
– he can’t eat it; it doesn’t supply shelter.
What
an absurd action, what extravagant expense and waste!
Remember,
the parables are about the truth that Jesus is living out.
And
they are stories about a process at work in us,
about our relationship with Jesus,
the
experience of the disciple in relationship to the Beloved.
Now
notice, in this parable
the Kingdom of Heaven is like the merchant,
not the pearl.
So
who is the merchant? Jesus is the
merchant.
Then what or
who is the pearl?
So
often this parable is read to mean
that WE are to be like the merchant seeking
the pearl of great price,
the
pearl being the Kingdom of God or Jesus.
But
is that really what this parable is saying?
Or
is it saying more consistently with the other parables around it
that it is God seeking extravagantly, generously,
with great yearning love
for
that which God sees as being of inestimable value?
Who
then is the pearl?
You are.
The
Kingdom of Heaven, through the grace of Jesus, seeks you out
to have, to draw you in to itself,
to be purchased, bought with a price, to be
saved.
Absurd
abundance, grace poured out for our joy.
Finally,
the fifth parable:
“The
Kingdom of Heaven is like a net…”
not like the
fishermen, but the net.
The
net gathers into it everything in its path.
Those
doing the fishing can’t say to the net,
“We’re just
collecting halibut today, thank you.”
The
net will catch whatever is there, and it may not just be fish.
It may even be possible to come up with
an old boot
or tire entangled in the net.
The
net is by nature absurdly non-discriminatory.
In the net we may find an abundance
of what we
were not necessarily seeking.
So
then there is this sorting through of the good and the bad.
And
the Greek words here, please understand, have no moral implication
as we may want to jump to conclusions about.
The
words good and bad here mean in their basic meaning
what is profitable and useful
and what is spoiled, rotten, no longer any
good, of any use.
This
is a parable about our relationship with Jesus?
Yes,
a parable of grace and inclusiveness.
And
then the process of purification takes place.
And now, because I take so seriously my ordination vow
of
being diligent in the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures,
I must inform you that there has been an unfortunate
mistranslation
in
the last verse of the Gospel reading:
"Therefore every scribe who has been trained
for the kingdom of heaven
is like the master
of a household
who brings out –
no, who throws out – of his treasure
what is new and
what is old."
The process of discipleship with Jesus,
which
is the same for both clergy and laity,
takes us through a profound reorientation out of the
mindset of the world
into
the absurd abundance of the Kingdom of Heaven
in
all its joy and love and mercy and grace.
Everything previous to the Kingdom, previous to Jesus,
goes – tossed out.
The Apostle Paul in the reading from Romans today
makes this profound statement:
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor
rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor
height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will
be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nothing
– good, bad, or indifferent, church traditions and customs,
or ordination status –
can
stand in the way of that love of God that Jesus embodies.
This, I declare to you, is the radical meaning of these
Kingdom parables,
parables
which are at the heart of discipleship with Jesus.
This is what we are to be about here – lay or ordained.
Those
who have ears to hear let them listen to what the Spirit is saying.
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