Proper 12-A

July 24, 2011

The Rev. Marguerite Alley

 I saw a picture yesterday, posted on Facebook, of a church marquee that said: “Satan called. He wants his weather back”! I have recently returned home following a stint as chaplain to the staff and campers at Camp Chanco, our Diocesan summer camp. While temperatures for the two weeks I was with them don’t compare to those we had this past week, it was still pretty darn hot!  The two weeks I spent at camp were a wonderful and challenging time for me. It brought back many great memories of the times I spent there. It also reminded me of the first time I went to the senior high conference. On the way home from camp, I was just chattering away to my parents about all the things we talked about, the songs we sang, the experiences we had and so forth. I few minutes into my extended answer to my mother’s question “How was your week?”, I noticed that her head had dipped to the side and then I heard her snore! I was so angry that every time after when she would ask about the week, I would refuse to answer her with anything other than “You wouldn’t understand”. As it turns out, my answer was true, if not rude, belligerent and disrespectful in its intent.

We often experience the very same frustration when we try to talk about God.  When we try to explain our most holy experiences with God, we find that we do not have the words to explain what being in this relationship feels like. We can share how our life is different but that comes out sounding pious. You could speak about how your heart feels as if it will explode sometimes or about how many wonderful people you have met. But all of that falls pretty far short of the real experience, wouldn’t you agree?  So, how can we speak of something we cannot see, or touch, or smell? How can we share with someone else what it feels like? Most of the time we are forced to use metaphors and similes, because we cannot accurately describe something that defies description.

The program I used for the time I was at Chanco focused on three important parables. The Parable of the Sower was the third one we explored. Part of what I did with the campers and staff was to have them create a simile to describe the “spirit of God”. So, in completing the sentence “the spirit of God is like…” I got some amazing answers from the kids and their counselors. I will share a couple of the ones I liked the most. One camper said the spirit of God is like “going back to your hometown after being away for a long time”; everyone is glad to see you, you feel at home and welcome. Another said it is like “surfing in the barrel”; you are surrounded by awesome power but it is also a little bit scary. The one I found most intriguing was this: The spirit of God is like “eating a taco”: when you first pick it up, it can be hard to handle but once you take a bite, it tastes so good, that you want more. And when you are finished, you feel full and satisfied. These are all great similes to help us understand something that cannot be seen or touched but they are all very different, and have more meaning to the ones who created them, than to the ones that heard them. So, even with good similes, the experience can be very different.

Jesus uses similes in his parables for the same reason. Now you might think, that of all people Jesus, who does have first hand knowledge of God and the kingdom, would be able to describe it for us. But even the Son of God uses ordinary everyday experiences. Jesus speaks indirectly, and makes some interesting and sometimes surprising metaphors with things that are holy and things that are “everyday”. This is one of the things I like most about Jesus’ teaching style! He takes everyday things, experiences and understandings and makes us look at them in new and fresh ways.

In our Gospel today, we hear first about the Mustard seed and then a handful of yeast. On the surface, neither of these is much to look at; a tiny seed and a hand full of yeast. But, placed in the right medium; the seed in soil and the yeast in flour, and the results are amazing: A shrub that is big enough for birds to build nests in and a huge loaf of bread are the result of these two seemingly insignificant ingredients. So, if the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed or a handful of yeast, then it must be amazing, powerful and there must be more to it than what we see on the surface.

The next two similes are a bit harder to see. A man finds a buried treasure, re-buries it then sells all he has to buy the field. So, he is lucky. He won the lottery. Then Jesus says that a merchant is in search of and finds a pearl of great price and sells all he owns to purchase it. Now as a merchant, he is already doing pretty well for himself but he finds something he really wants and is willing to sell all he has to acquire it. So, according to Jesus, each one finds something that makes everything else they “own” look kind of puny and small by comparison and they are willing to let go of all that they have acquired thus far in order to have this one thing. So, if the kingdom of God is like this, then what Jesus is saying is that the kingdom is uncommon but within our reach if we are willing to “pay for it”. The final simile is that the kingdom of God is like a net thrown into the sea. We are told that the net gathers all fish and that later they are sorted. Now, traditionally many folks have read this portion and have been inexplicably drawn to the part that speaks about the sorting, as if the parable is about who will get into the kingdom and who will not. I would suggest to you that nothing could be further from the truth of this parable! If the net gathers all kinds of fish, to be sorted later, then the kingdom is not something we find, but rather something that finds us and drags us to the shore. We don’t get to choose with whom we share the net.

The thing that most captures me about these similes is that in each of them there is a hint of mystery. In the first, the mustard seed goes into the ground…we cannot see it do its thing……then when the shrub grows to its full potential, there is nothing left of that original seed. It vanishes.  In the bread simile, the yeast goes into the middle of the dough. We cannot see its power immediately. In fact we cannot see how it works at all. All we can see is the huge, risen loaf ready for the oven.  In the field, the treasure is buried, and in the pearl story, the pearl is found among all the other pearls, but takes a discerning eye to find it. So, if the kingdom of God is like these stories then I think what Jesus is saying is that it is not really something we CAN see or touch or even define and describe, but something that finds us, something that must be searched for, something that must be felt, experienced and believed.

So, then…..if we can’t see it, touch it, define it or describe it, how are we supposed to look for it?  I suppose that one might go on retreat, or join a monastery or convent. That might free us from all our “ordinary, everyday worries” so that we could devote ourselves to the search. But where should we look? If the kingdom is hidden in this world, then it is really well hidden and only those with the best eyesight and the most committed of us will be able to find it. But, if Jesus uses ordinary, everyday experiences to explain it, then it just kind of makes sense to me that we ought to be able to experience, define and articulate it through our own ordinary, everyday experiences…with a bit of help. What if it is not really hidden but rather, just not in plain sight? Think of those magic eye drawings that were so popular a few years ago. Once you saw the object, it really stood out, but when you first looked, it didn’t make any sense. I suspect that Jesus chose to speak in parables for one simple reason; he knew that ordinary everyday language, experiences and ideas were the only way that we COULD understand what the kingdom of God is like. Why else would he talk about farmers and fields, baking bread, fishing and buying and selling things unless his intention was to tell us that the kingdom really is as simple as these things, that our treasure is not buried under the “X” on a map discovered in a time capsule, but right here among the people, places and activities we share and enjoy everyday. He seems to be saying that to speak about things where words fail us, we need but use words with which we are already intimately familiar. He seems to be saying that the places to look are those where we spend most of our time; within our families, our homes, our friends and our communities. Because if we don’t recognize the kingdom in these places, then we stand little chance of recognizing it anywhere.  Because we are the soil where the seeds have been sown. We are the earth where they will grow and they are growing in us and in others even when we can’t see it happening. We are the field and Jesus, the treasure buried within us, is the only treasure worth seeking.

AMEN