1 Kings 3:5-12; Psalm 119:129-136 Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
The Rev. Drew Brislin
July can often be an especially taxing month for me emotionally. My father’s birthday is July 21st and so he would have turned seventy-five this year and then just a few days later, on July 27th I remember him on the anniversary of his death. It has been eight years now since his death; however, I can still hear his voice telling me stories. Stories about growing up, about his bands, about his many years in teaching. One particular story seemed to resonate with me this week though. When I was a senior in high school thinking about what I wanted to do for college, my dad would talk to me about his experience. When he took the ACT, two of the schools he applied to were Southern Mississippi and Livingston. I asked why Southern Mississippi, and he said it was because they had the Dixie Darlings dance corps in their band. As Livingston offered him a band scholarship, he eventually decided to enroll there so as to ease the financial burden on my grandfather. I think in an effort to tell me how not to approach college though, he imparted one particular story. He said that one morning in his first semester he sat down in his English class and the professor (in an attempt to make a point) began to go down the rows pointing to each student and saying you will pass, you will fail and so on and so forth. I think you can see where I’m going. When she got to my dad, she said you will fail. My dad, not being one for engaging in futile exercises promptly got up and left. Now the professor was simply trying to make a point about statistics and how they operated on the bell curve but this rather Calvinistic approach to academics afforded my dad the opportunity to dodge one of his most dreaded subjects for a moment. This morning we hear the third of Jesus’ discourses as he explains to those listening what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.
So often when we hear this Gospel reading, we refer to it as the mustard seed parable. We get stuck on this first section of the reading that challenges us to see that which we would normally see as impure, invaluable, and lacking as the exact thing that God loves. Also, the parables around the leaven seek to inform us about the transformative nature of the kingdom. And then we come to the last portion of our reading that is sometimes referred to as the dragnet parable. The casting of the net, the sorting of the good from the bad fish and the weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is where I want to focus this morning. So often we hear this part of the reading, and it steers us down a path of fear. I think we want to read this rather literally and so we make decisions because we don’t want to be the evil culled from the righteous that is thrown into the fire. Well, guess what? I have good news for you! Jesus is love and full of grace and if we can embrace that then I think we can see the uniqueness of Jesus and Matthew’s Gospel not so much in the invention of these images but in the surprisingly new uses of them. Those listening to Jesus would have been familiar with these images as well and would more than likely have some of the same concerns as you and I do this morning. However, I think Jesus wants us to go a little deeper. The lectionary puts these verses together very thoughtfully in that we should take them in as a whole rather than individual stories. As a result, the church should see itself in the whole of the story today. The church is not meant to separate, rather it is meant to reap and sow. The church is the net that is cast and meant to gather all. The apocalyptic or end of times image that some are predestined to be judged and sorted out is our misinterpretation of Jesus’ gospel. The parables are a gift from Jesus that are meant to inspire hope within us and the world. The weeping and gnashing of teeth are the promise that one day the truth will be told and heard that some things, some aspects of our lives and what we put our hope and faith in will need to be sorted out of our lives. All the shiny and glittery things in our lives that distract us from our relationship with each other, with our families, with our friends and with our church will need to be sifted through and removed from our lives because the kingdom is characterized by our relationship with each other and most importantly with our God.
As a young college student my dad’s rather literal interpretation of his English professor’s prediction of success and failure led him to prematurely give up on a class that he probably knew he would eventually have to master. I’m so thankful he did because he would not only graduate but become an educator who affected the lives of many students. As recipients of God’s love, we are called to in turn share that love with all those whom we encounter. This is the work of building the kingdom. God’s judgement is always made with grace and made in love. We are called to hold on to that promise and to preach that message. Jesus commands us to love God with all our heart and all our soul and to love one another as ourselves. If we worry about ourselves and about anything that falls short of living into that I think we move into a place in which we think we have control. Jesus is telling us this morning I think to sort those aspects out of our lives, and we will be able to see the kingdom more clearly. The promise is that we won’t ever get it exactly right until the end, but we are called to keep trying. We are called to continuously examine our lives. What can I let go of and what practice can I start that will help me grow spiritually? Who should I bring into my life to grow and who can I be a blessing to so that they might grow? The parable this morning is not meant to reflect God’s power over the church but rather it is meant to be an invitation to everyone to share in his love.