Parables of the Kingdom
John Shuck
First Presbyterian Church
Elizabethton, Tennessee
October 20, 2013
The Gospel of Thomas
Jesus said,
"Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. And there is nothing buried that will not be raised." (5)
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Jesus said,
"There was a rich person who had a great deal of money. He said, 'I shall invest my money so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my storehouses with produce, that I may lack nothing.' These were the things he was thinking in his heart, but that very night he died.
Anyone here with two ears had better listen!" (63)
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Jesus said,
"Look, the sower went out, took a handful of seeds, and scattered them. Some fell on the road, and the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn't take root in the soil and didn't produce heads of grain. Others fell on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop: it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure." (9)
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And he said,
"The human being is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of little fish. Among them the wise fisherman discovered a fine large fish. He threw all the little fish back into the sea, and easily chose the large fish.
Anyone here with two good ears had better listen!" (8)
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He said,
"A person owned a vineyard and rented it to some farmers, so they could work it and he could collect its crop from them. He sent his slave so the farmers would give him the vineyard's crop. They grabbed him, beat him, and almost killed him, and the slave returned and told his master. His master said, 'Perhaps he didn't know them.' He sent another slave, and the farmers beat that one as well. Then the master sent his son and said, 'Perhaps they'll show my son some respect.' Because the farmers knew that he was the heir to the vineyard, they grabbed him and killed him. Anyone here with two ears had better listen!" (65)
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Jesus said,
"A person was receiving guests. When he had prepared the dinner, he sent his slave to invite the guests.
The slave went to the first and said to that one, 'My master invites you.' That one said, 'Some merchants owe me money; they are coming to me tonight. I have to go and give them instructions. Please excuse me from dinner.'
The slave went to another and said to that one, 'My master has invited you.' That one said to the slave, 'I have bought a house, and I have been called away for a day. I shall have no time.'
The slave went to another and said to that one, 'My master invites you.' That one said to the slave, 'My friend is to be married, and I am to arrange the banquet. I shall not be able to come. Please excuse me from dinner.'
The slave went to another and said to that one, 'My master invites you.' That one said to the slave, 'I have bought an estate, and I am going to collect the rent. I shall not be able to come. Please excuse me.'
The slave returned and said to his master, 'Those whom you invited to dinner have asked to be excused.' The master said to his slave, 'Go out on the streets and bring back whomever you find to have dinner.'
Buyers and merchants will not enter the places of my Father." (64)
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The disciples said to Jesus,
"Tell us what Heaven's kingdom is like."
He said to them,
"It's like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on prepared soil, it produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky." (20)
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Jesus said,
"The Father's kingdom is like a person who has good seed. His enemy came during the night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The person did not let the workers pull up the weeds, but said to them, 'No, otherwise you might go to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.' For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be conspicuous, and will be pulled up and burned." (57)
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Jesus said,
"The Father's kingdom is like a merchant who had a supply of merchandise and found a pearl. That merchant was prudent; he sold the merchandise and bought the single pearl for himself.
So also with you, seek his treasure that is unfailing, that is enduring, where no moth comes to eat and no worm destroys." (76)
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Jesus said,
"The Father's kingdom is like a woman. She took a little leaven, hid it in dough, and made it into large loaves of bread. Anyone here with two ears had better listen!" (96)
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Jesus said,
"The Father's kingdom is like a woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking along a distant road, the handle of the jar broke and the meal spilled behind her [along] the road. She didn't know it; she hadn't noticed a problem. When she reached her house, she put the jar down and discovered that it was empty." (97)
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Jesus said,
"The Father's kingdom is like a person who wanted to kill someone powerful. While still at home he drew his sword and thrust it into the wall to find out whether his hand would go in. Then he killed the powerful one." (98)
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Jesus said, "The Father's kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine and looked for the one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep, 'I love you more than the ninety-nine.'" (107)
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Jesus said,
"The Father's kingdom is like a person who had a treasure hidden in his field but did not know it. And when he died he left it to his son. The son did not know about it either. He took over the field and sold it. The buyer went plowing, discovered the treasure, and began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished." (109)
What is life for?
What is your life for?
As Mary Oliver asked the question in her poem, “The Summer Day:”
“What will you do with your one wild and precious life?”
Those questions are hard and they are supposed to be hard. They invite us to a deep level of introspection, an activity that is generally not asked of us. For the most part we are asked to describe what we prefer in regards to entertainment or we are asked to buy things or to make money or to measure our success against some standard, but rarely are we asked what we are for,
Why are you here? Not the human species, you, in particular.
Why are you here?
Who are you?
What are you doing with your life?
Asked directly, those questions are a bit aggressive.
It is still Sunday morning, and I could use another cup of coffee and you are asking me why I am here?
Rather than ask those questions directly, Jesus said things like this:
"There was a rich person who had a great deal of money. He said, 'I shall invest my money so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my storehouses with produce, that I may lack nothing.' These were the things he was thinking in his heart, but that very night he died.
"There was a rich person who had a great deal of money. He said, 'I shall invest my money so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my storehouses with produce, that I may lack nothing.' These were the things he was thinking in his heart, but that very night he died.
Anyone here with two ears had better listen!" (63)
We might scratch our heads and ask what is Jesus saying here? Are we not to invest? Are we not to save? What about George Herbert who wrote in 1633: “A penny spar'd is twice got.” Ben Franklin was credited with that piece of wisdom as “a penny saved is a penny earned.”
Wasn’t the rich person Jesus speaks about doing the wise thing? Saving his pennies? What else are you supposed to do with your pennies? Did he do wrongly this man? You can think of worse things to do than to invest wisely and save.
Whether you do or not, you end up the same, dead. That is the prize of life, death. Whether you think that fate is fair or not or is too depressing to talk about or not, it really doesn’t matter, because that is the truth. None of us gets out of this life alive. Regardless of whether you think there is something beyond this life, this life ends in death.
Whether you do or not, you end up the same, dead. That is the prize of life, death. Whether you think that fate is fair or not or is too depressing to talk about or not, it really doesn’t matter, because that is the truth. None of us gets out of this life alive. Regardless of whether you think there is something beyond this life, this life ends in death.
So back to the original question asked by Mary Oliver:
“What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?”
One answer is, “I will save my pennies that I may lack nothing.”
All right. At least it is an answer. He spent his time building his treasure. His treasure is in his barn. It made him feel secure. And he died.
The meaning of life.
Jesus doesn’t scold with his parables. He just turns things so that we see them from a different angle. A penny saved is a penny earned. Good advice. Wise advice. On the other hand, you’re dead. Jesus isn’t forcing, not pushing, not scolding. As we use the phrase, he’s “just sayin’.”
He is planting in us a thought. Like a seed, a seed of a mustard weed that might grow into a pesky bush of discomfiting thoughts that there might be more to my life than saving my pennies so I personally will lack nothing.
Jesus is inviting us to a level of introspection beyond the confines of common wisdom.
Through his parables he encourages us to ask hard questions about ourselves. What are our lives for?
Speaking of mustard, we find this exchange:
The disciples said to Jesus,
“Tell us what Heaven’s kingdom is like.”
He said to them,
“It’s like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on prepared soil, it produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky.” (20)
There is something funny about that parable, too. Mustard is a weed. A large plant? Maybe, depending on what large means. The birds making shelter in a mustard weed would have to be small birds. Mustard takes over fields. You don’t really want it. You have a nice prepared field, prepared for grain, and instead mustard gets in the field and it grows fast and spreads and suddenly you have a field full of weeds. And now your grain field is full of mustard weeds that shelter sparrows who taunt you. That says Jesus, is the kingdom of God.
I have my prepared life and I have my prepared barns and my field is ready for planting grain with which I will fill my barns. Then death comes. Or then these weeds come in. Jesus seems to be saying that these mustard weeds that invade our prepared fields are the kingdom of heaven. What does that mean? Maybe he is saying that these weeds are gifts in disguise.
Sometimes that happens with life doesn’t it? The things that are annoying weeds in our prepared fields turn out to be gifts. Rather than fight them or spray them with Roundup, Jesus is inviting us to respond to these unexpected and uninvited circumstances as opportunities to take our lives in a new direction.
Sometimes that happens with life doesn’t it? The things that are annoying weeds in our prepared fields turn out to be gifts. Rather than fight them or spray them with Roundup, Jesus is inviting us to respond to these unexpected and uninvited circumstances as opportunities to take our lives in a new direction.
Maybe.
It could be that this parable is social commentary. The ones who own barns and prepared fields are the rich. In the first century, that would have been a very small percentage of the population who owned the vast majority of the wealth. Jesus’s audience would have made up the vast majority of people who owned a small minority of the wealth if any. Perhaps these poor are the mustard weeds and this is an “Occupy Prepared Fields” kind of parable. This would fit well with the earliest traditions about Jesus. The poor will inherit the earth as mustard infests the fields.
He’s just sayin’.
Jesus said,
"The Father's kingdom is like a woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking along a distant road, the handle of the jar broke and the meal spilled behind her along the road. She didn't know it; she hadn't noticed a problem. When she reached her house, she put the jar down and discovered that it was empty." (97)
I am starting to see a pattern.
The full barn cannot protect the man from death.
The prepared field gets overrun by mustard.
The full jar of meal pours out without the woman noticing.
Jesus is really annoying.
How is a broken jar that loses all its meal without the woman noticing like the Father’s kingdom? Let’s be clear. No one wants to have this happen. This is a bad day. If that happened to you and then some long-haired, bearded buy with sandals said, “Hey isn’t that like the kingdom of God,” you would just punch him. You’d just lay him out.
A full jar of meal is the kingdom of God, thank you. So is a prepared field in which the seed I plant in it grows into grain, not mustard, but grain that I harvest and then store in my barn because I have worked hard and earned it. That is the kingdom of God.
Except when it isn’t. Except when jars break and mustard overruns the field and we die before we enjoy what we have earned and saved.
Then what do we do?
Then what is life for?
Then who are we?
Then where is God?
When things don’t happen like they are supposed to happen,
when life is out of order,
when the common wisdom doesn’t come through on its promise,…
…then we are left with the pieces of the shattered stained glass and we have to start from the very beginning and ask what God is and what life is and we have to decide whether or not we even want to live it.
The Jesus traditions that have taken many trajectories have had their most meaning for me in those times when the jar is broken and empty. It isn’t a pious kind of thing that is often heard from those who don’t get it that there is bright side to it, or that God is closing a door but opening a window, or God doesn’t give you what you can’t handle, or whatever other cliché is popular at the moment.
The Jesus traditions including the parables by Jesus and the parables about Jesus speak in ways that are not direct. They don’t minimize the loss. They don’t hurry you through it, nor do they look away. The Jesus traditions and the stories that have been incarnated so to speak in the lives of people throughout our history, are less “preachy”, the meaningful ones, that is, and more evocative.
They speak to me in the presence of loss or self-rejection or doubt, not with scolding or judgment but with embrace.
Henri Nouwen was a Roman Catholic priest. He died in 1996. He was a deeply spiritual person who saw the kingdom of God from the vantage point of woundedness. Through the woundedness he discovered embrace by God who called him, “Beloved.”
A book has just been published by Michael Christensen and Rebecca Laird calledDiscernment. It contains writings on the theme of discerning direction for our life from Henri’s journals. It is autobiographical in that he was often in the process of discerning, of asking that question that Mary Oliver asked directly, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life” and that Jesus asked through his parables.
Henri discovered that through all of the discernment the primary core identity was that he as are all of us, beloved. He wrote:
My dark side says, “I am no good. I deserve to pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned.” Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us God’s beloved. Being the beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.” P. 26
My dark side says, “I am no good. I deserve to pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned.” Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us God’s beloved. Being the beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.” P. 26
This is always true but especially true when the jar is broken and the field is full of mustard weeds and when we come to the realization that the full barns won’t protect us. Jesus said the kingdom of God is like that. The kingdom of God is present there. In that. Present and hidden.
What is life for?
What is your life for?
What will you do with your one wild and precious life?
Perhaps we are here to live life knowing that we are beloved.
Henri said that he prayed this prayer when he needed to discern what God was calling him to do. The prayer is by St. Teresa of Avila, called Solo Dios basta, or God alone is enough. I will close with it:
Let nothing disturb you
Let nothing frighten you.
Those who cling to God
Will lack nothing
Let nothing disturb you
Let nothing frighten you
God alone is enough.
Amen.
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