SOME SURPRISING ANGLES
A sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Randle R. (Rick) Mixon
First Baptist Church, Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Text: Matthew 13:31-34, 44-52
During my trip to Washington, DC, last week, I wandered down to the National Portrait Gallery. In particular, I wanted to see an exhibit of the political cartoons of “Herblock” – Herbert Block, the Australian immigrant who skewered US Presidents for 70 years, from Franklin Roosevelt through Bill Clinton. In order to get to the galleries that held the Herblock work, you had to walk through the galleries of the Smithsonian’s official portraits of the Presidents. Beginning with Gilbert Stuart’s magnificent life-size portrait of George Washington, you are introduced to each succeeding chief executive, ostensibly preserved as he would have wanted to be for posterity, looking his most presidential. The portraits are all quite elegant and realistic until you reach Elaine de Kooning’s portrait of John F. Kennedy. In semi-abstract swirls of green and red and white, this portrait seems shockingly out of place amidst the austerity and reserve of the others. But, as you stand and ponder it, you get some sense that de Kooning has actually captured the energy of the man in the artistic language of the times. It is a surprising angle from which to consider the Presidency, but one that works, at least for me.
In the “Herblock” galleries, more surprising angles greet you. Block was a diehard liberal and champion of the underdog in his own politics. It’s not so difficult to tell which Presidents he admired and which he detested. Still, his philosophy of the political cartoon required that he skewer them all. He viewed the job of the political cartoonist as one who kicks the “big boys who kick the underdog.” As Block saw it, there were times when a forceful, negative reaction did the most good. Though the office of the Presidency of the United States deserves our respect, the character and behavior of each of its holders over the past 230 years has not always been above reproach. Those who have offered some surprising angles on these good fellows have helped us to keep things in perspective.
In today’s text, Jesus offers some surprising angles on the Kingdom of Heaven – at least, they must have been surprising for those who first heard them uttered. “Let anyone with eyes see,” he seems to say. “Here are some snapshots of the reign of God. It’s like a tiny seed that grows into a bush substantial enough for birds to build their nests. It’s like the leaven that a woman works into some 50 pounds of flour, transforming it into the most delicious bread imaginable. It’s like a tenant farmer, digging in the field, who discovers a buried treasure so valuable he hocks everything he owns and borrows from his brother-in-law to buy the field. It’s like a merchant of fine jewelry who always keeps his eye out for that one perfect pearl and, when he finds it, he liquidates his entire collection, because he just has to have this one. It’s like fishermen trawling for fish who have to put up with whatever they net until they can bring it to shore and sort it all out, keeping the good fish and disposing of the trash they’ve hauled in with the fish.”
These five short parables along with his image of the ideal scribe who is able to balance the new with the old elements of the gospel, bring to a close Matthew’s compilation of Jesus’ parables of the kingdom. This is the third of the gospel writer’s discourses and comes right in the middle of his gospel. If you remember two weeks ago we spent some time on the Parable of the Sower (or the Soils) and last week’s gospel reading would have been the Parable of the Wheat and Tares “together sown.” The question is, is the discourse, this collection of seven narrative parables, meant to provide a comprehensive picture of the Kingdom of Heaven? I think not.
As I said earlier, these seem like snapshots of the Kingdom, candid pictures, each of which offered for Jesus’ first audience surprising angles of view that they had never considered before. They knew something of kings and other despots; they must have held some hope that God was a different kind of king and God’s kingdom was a different kind of kingdom than the one they inhabited. At the same time, some of them must have been impatient with how long it was taking God to establish this kingdom and there must have been others who wondered how a good and just God could let them suffer so. Jesus addresses these concerns rather obliquely. Though not literally the smallest seed, a mustard seed was common vernacular for something tiny. That they would have understood, but they also knew that mustard bushes were a farming nuisance. They were considered “impure,” a weed, really, and there was no way the average mustard bush could support a bird’s nest. So what was he trying to say to them?
Leaven was also considered nasty stuff. A potentially poisonous fungus, it was often used as a symbol for impurity and evil. How could it represent God’s kingdom? And wasn’t 50 pounds of flour a lot to leaven at one time? What was he getting at? It was not uncommon for someone working a field or an orchard to discover treasure some poor soul had buried there just ahead of the latest invading army or sweep of the countryside by the current ruler of the land. The treasure was long abandoned and long forgotten. Jewish law would not have expected the finder to tell the owner of the field, but it did seem rash to risk everything he had in speculation on the land and the value of the treasure. The same may be said of the merchant who imprudently risks everything on one pearl. The fishermen in the crowd would have understood completely the mixed bag that would be caught in a large seine style net. But the delay in the sorting of the good fish from the bad would have seemed quite curious.
The common material in the parables would have been familiar to all, but the surprising angles of view Jesus took toward that material would have made them think, forced them to see differently. You don’t have to take every word literally or find a secret meaning in every angle of the parable to get the core meanings. God’s kingdom will indeed grow, but from small and humble beginnings, and there will be room in that kingdom for all kinds of strange birds to nest. There’s an image for you to consider. The leaven isn’t just mixed into the flour, the original text says it was “hidden in the flour.” That is to say the kingdom does not necessarily come with trumpets blaring, fiery oratory, the overthrow of the established order. Sometimes it works its way in secretly, changing everything before anyone can figure out what is happening. There’s a snapshot of the transforming power of the kingdom for you. David Bartlett says that these two parables “stress the astonishing, superabundant generosity of the kingdom of heaven.” However, he also notes, “I have heard sermons that suggest the mustard seed was notoriously unruly and the leaven excessively smelly. The kingdom of heaven does not always grow politely or pleasantly, but recklessly and annoyingly” (David Bartlett, The New Proclamation Commentary on the Gospels: Matthew, p. 36.)
Oh the kingdom is so amazing, so wonderful that, whether you stumble across it or spend your whole life searching, when you find it it’s worth risking everything to claim it for yourself. Yes, there may be suffering but in the end the joy of the discovery overwhelms any pain. There’s a portrait of kingdom claiming discipleship for you. Bartlett again says that these parables seem to “run roughshod over our careful distinction between grace and works.” But he goes on, “This treasure, sought or unsought, demands response. The gift of discipleship is immeasurable; the cost of discipleship is giving up everything – for the sake of the treasure. Good news is hard news, and vice versa” (David Bartlett, The New Proclamation Commentary on the Gospels: Matthew, p. 37.)
Who gets to decide which fish to throw away and which to keep? Not the fishermen this time. The fishermen just keep hauling in the catch, bring them in through the lure of divine love. God will take care of the sorting in God’s time. Here is a picture of a kingdom in which there is room for some pretty surprising catches by those fishers of folk.
So what are we to do with these ancient stories? They may be interesting, entertaining, even arresting, and yet they are hardly contemporary. How do they speak to our experiences in 2008? I have struggled over time with ways to make biblical language current. Jesus’ use of images and language familiar to those to whom he preached, allowed him to play with perspective and come up with surprising angles that caused his listeners to question what they thought they knew and gain new insight into how God was working in the world. How might this be so for us?
In the essay, part of which I read for the Contemporary Word, Brian McLaren, leader of the “Emergent Church,” asks “Why is kingdom language not as dynamic today?” He answers that “kingdoms have given way to republics, democracies and democratic republics” and kings “are by and large anachronisms, playing a limited ceremonial role…evoking nothing of the power and authority they did in Jesus’ day.” Plus he says, “kingdom language evokes patriarchy, chauvinism, imperialism, domination and a regime without freedom – the opposite of the liberating, barrier-breaking, domination-shattering, reconciling movement the kingdom of God was intended to be!” Thus he goes through the exercise in which he tries various images that might hold more meaning today – “the dream of God,” “ the revolution of God,” “the mission of God,” “the party of God,” “ the network of God,” “the dance of God” (Brian McLaren, Found in Translation, reprinted in Seasons of the Spirit: Congregational Life, Pentecost 1, 2008, pp. 103-104.)
As we who have grown up in the US have staid, traditional notions of the Presidents that need to be challenged from time to time by viewing from some surprising angles that mavericks like Elaine de Kooning and Herb Block provide, so we need to find ways to reclaim the challenge of the surprising angles of vision on God and God’s enterprise in the world that Jesus provided for his first disciples. If you had to tell the story, what angles would you choose? What snapshots would you share? What images bring God to life in your lives? To prime the pump, Holly Nearon asks a set of questions, “When have you been surprised by a small gesture, a small vision, a small donation giving life to more than you expected?” “What sort of person is it who finds the treasure? What would be the hardest for you to sell in order to buy the field? For what would you be willing to sell everything?” “Do we expect God’s grace while ignoring God’s justice?” (Holly Nearon, New Proclamation, Year A, 2008, pp. 151-152.)
Let anyone with eyes see. Here are some snapshots of the reign of God, some images of the dream of God, some pictures from the party of God, some movements in the dance of God. Let me tell you, it’s like… Or maybe you can tell me what it’s like for you. I’ll bet there are some surprising angles out there yet to be seen and explored.