Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Romans 8:26-39

In our gospel lesson this morning from the gospel of Matthew, Jesus uses five different things to help us understand what life under God’s rule is like. The five things are a mustard seed, yeast in bread dough, a treasure, pearls, and fish. And he calls life under God’s rule – the ways of God – the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is Jesus’ way of saying that God’s rule, God’s way of doing things, God values and priorities, have come to earth and that it is our job to get our lives and our thoughts, behaviors, and actions in line with this way, this rule of God – the kingdom of heaven.

The first thing that Jesus uses as an example is a mustard seed. He says that the Lord is like a gardener who plants seed in her garden. A mustard seed is a very small seed, only a few millimeters in size. The amazing thing about mustard is not that it is the biggest plant on earth. I’ve never seen the Redwoods in California, but I understand that they are massive trees. Mustard plants are not that big, instead they are more like a bush. The thing about mustard is that it is fast growing. The mustard Jesus would have seen was probably more like an invasive species. It grew fast and it grew everywhere.

The point Jesus is trying to make with this parable is that the kingdom of God – God’s ways and God’s rule – starts out small and grows from there. Think about your own faith in God. It probably started small and grew pretty fast early on, and then it takes your whole life to grow and deepen. 

The other thing about mustard is that it probably didn’t grow in neat rows like corn and soybeans. Instead, it would be more like a bushy plant that takes over your garden bed. I think this is Jesus’ way of saying that the Christian message, the good news of Jesus Christ, is contagious when it’s spoken and lived rightly. A loving, humble, deep faith is something people want to get on board with.

The final thing about the mustard tree image (or bush) are the branches. In the Old Testament, branches are often symbols for the nations (read, all people across their ethnic differences) and the tree is the people of Israel, the people of God. This image represents how God’s work is meant to bring all people together to worship God and live as neighbors to one another. The branches represent the safety and rest that the Church offers to the world. The Church word for this is hospitality. Hospitality means to make people feel at home and the Christian call is to make the outcast (those not considered worthy by the dominant group) and the stranger (those who are not like the dominant group) feel at home.

The second example that Jesus uses to explain what the kingdom of heaven is like is yeast working its way through bread dough. “The kingdom of heaven [the rule of God] is like yeast,” Jesus teaches. It’s like a woman mixed it into a lot of flour, water, and salt, and the “yeast worked its way through all of the dough.”

Yeast is something that is easy to forget about, but is really important. When yeast is mixed with flour and water, a sort of magic happens and those three ordinary substances are transformed into something that when baked, is delicious and smells really good. Without yeast, bread would not be bread with this lightness and chewiness. Instead, if flour and water were mixed and baked, it would be like a chewy piece of dough.

Yeast stands for the transformative power of God. If we seek to go in a different direction in our lives or our thoughts, behaviors, and words and we let God change us and cooperate with him in changing, God will change us. I think anyone can change. I wouldn’t be a Christian if I didn’t believe that. That’s not to say that people will change because admitting you were wrong or on a bad path and actually doing the things needed to change are really hard. Ask anyone who has ever struggled with an addition. You have to fight your own worst instincts, fears, and demons in order to change.

But people can and do change. God is like the woman in the parable who mixes in the yeast in the dough. The yeast is like the grace of God, it changes us. The Christian word for this is ‘maturity’. Spiritual maturity is about becoming like Christ in our thoughts, words, and actions. That’s not to say that we become Jesus as our faith deepens. We don’t. We each remain who we are. But spiritual maturity is about living your life in such a way that your thoughts, words, and actions look like what Jesus would have thought, said, and done if he were living your life.

The third example that Jesus uses to teach us about life with God is a man who finds a treasure in a field. He’s so excited by his find that he buries it, goes home and sells everything he has so he has some money, and then goes and buys the field. To me this parable is about God’s willingness to give everything he has to have the field (the world which he loves) and it is about the joy of the Christian life in that we can know the true God (the man who is so excited when he finds the treasure).

This isn’t to say that we can’t be sad or upset or that faith isn’t a serious thing. We can be sad and get upset as Christians and we should when bad things happen. Faith is a serious thing because it deals with right and wrong, life and death, now and eternity. But at the end of the day the Chrisitan life, our faith, is a life of joy. It might be a hard joy (Christ does ask us to take up our crosses and follow up), but it is a joyful and wonderful thing to be in the hands of Almighty God.

The fourth example that Jesus gives us for what life is like under God’s rule is a businessperson  who is looking for a good and sound investment. The parable goes like this “…the kingdom of heaven is like a trader who was looking for fine pearls. He found one that was very valuable. So he went away and sold everything he had. And he bought that pearl.”

I read this parable as Jesus teaching us that one of the most important decisions that each of us has to make is where we will put our time and energy. And that putting our time and energy towards getting to know and love and serve God are the most valuable things we can do, like buying a fine pearl. The Lord’s command to everyone is this: “love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength and spirit” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” How we each do that will look different because we are all different people. God gives each of us different gifts to use and different ways that we come to know God. But, at the end of the day the time and energy we spend loving and serving God is the best use of our time. 

This parable is a story about the New Testament phrase “if we live, let us live to the Lord.” It doesn’t mean that we should spend all of our time in church or become a monk or nun. You can love and serve and glorify God washing dishes, teaching children, or farming if that is what God has called you to do. Living to the Lord means that we do our work, and spend our time with friends and family, and use our free time in a way that honors God and serves others.

The final example that Jesus gives for what life is like with God and in God’s world is a fisherman who goes out fishing with a net. When the net is full, they pull it up and sort the fish. The good fish they keep, and the bad fish they throw back. 

In this parable, Jesus leads us to the point he wants us to understand. The good fish that are kept are the good people who have followed God’s ways and done what God has required. The bad fish that are not able to be kept are like evil people who ignore God’s commands, do what is wrong, and live in a way that dishonors God, themselves, and others. 

This parable is what is called an apocalyptic parable. What that means is that it reveals something about the end of time as we know it. It’s the story version of the line in the Apostle’s Creed, “We believe Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.” Jesus’ point in the parable is harsh: God will judge everyone based on what they have done. The good and wicked will be separated. 

When the Bible talks about God’s judgement, it can be uncomfortable to think and talk about. Here are a few things that I try to keep in mind when I read the stories of God’s judgement. First, the simple fact is that God hates sin and wrongdoing. As harsh as it sounds, we want God to hate sin and wrongdoing because it means that God will do something about the wrongs that are done and that the way things are now is not how they will be when Christ comes again. Second, I try to remember that it is not my job to play God and be my own judge, jury, and executioner. These stories are here to warn us, yes, to do what is right, to ‘resist evil and oppression’ as we promise to do when we are baptized. But, these stories also give us comfort that we can trust in God to sort out the right and the wrong, the good and the evil. We can hope that God will one day save all people and that God will make right what is wrong in the world because God is good, strong, and full of righteousness and love.

These five parables – the mustard seed growing into a tree and the Church’s offering of Christ’s hospitality and refuge for everyone who seeks it; the woman the yeast, and the grace of God which changes us for the better if we allow God to do so; the treasure the man finds and the joy of life with God and the joy that comes from knowing God; the pearl the businessman buys and the importance of using our time and energy in a worthy way to put God and serving God at the center of our lives; and the net and the fish which symbolizes that God will deal with evil and wrongdoing – these stories are Jesus’ way of bringing God to us and helping us to know God and what God requires of us. 

God’s promise to each of us that are woven into these stories is that God promises to be with us, to help us, to correct us, and to guide us if we let him. That is what the Apostle Paul was writing about in our reading from Romans this morning, “…the Holy Spirit helps us when we are weak. We don’t know what we should pray for. But the Spirit himself prays for us. He prays through groans too deep for words. God, who looks into our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit. And the Spirit prays for God’s people as God wants him to pray.”

May the Lord bless you. Amen.