July
28, 2002 - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis
29:15-28
NRSV
KJV
CEV
Matthew
13:31-33, 44-52
NRSV
KJV
CEV
“The Kingdom of God: Expect the Unexpected”
The Scriptures we have read today invite us to ask questions. The story in Genesis about Laban, Jacob, Rachel and Leah should have rubbed against our twenty-first century sensibilities in a big way. The question here would be, what in the world is going on? Why would God allow this, what must God be thinking? The kingdom parables in Matthew also invite us to ask what in the world is going on? There seems to be some sense in the seed and the yeast, but the treasure, the pearl, and the net thing seem a bit far-fetched. So, what is going on here?
Well,
the kingdom of God is going on here. And the answer to our question is, expect
the unexpected. What is important for us to see is simply how God can work in
people who are really committed, really passionate in relationship to God and to
others. Jacob was so in love with Rachel that he was willing not only to accept
Leah, but also to work the extra time to have the one he desired. The kingdom of
God is like that, like the treasure, the pearl and the net because it is a
‘find’ and it's worth pulling in, or sifting out, everything else to get
that which is most desired. We don't expect the kingdom of God to function in
that way, but it does. It comes to us in our passions, and there in most
unlikely and unexpected ways.
So,
let's establish that God simply doesn't work as we expect God to work. Back to
Genesis for a moment. God chooses people with seemingly questionable characters
to do great things. I could give you a huge list from the Hebrew Scripture, but
the story before us today is a prime example. Laban and Jacob would be quite
comfortable in certain sections of modern corporate America. They were
"deal makers" and were willing to do whatever it took to have the deal
come off – and come off in the way they wanted it to be.
Jacob
had tricked his brother Esau into selling his birthright for a bowl of lentil
stew. Then he turned around, with his mother's help, and tricked his blind,
enfeebled father into giving him the blessing that should have belonged to his
brother. The whole reason that Jacob was even at his kinsman Laban's house was
because he was in flight from his understandably upset, and, much larger, older
brother! Once he's at his kinsman's house we can see that they are truly
related, because Laban does a number on Jacob. Jacob wants to marry Rachel, the
younger daughter, but Laban needs to marry off Leah, the older daughter. So
Laban tricks Jacob. There's a certain amount of justice in that, and certainly
lets us know that there is no honor among con artists.
Regardless,
God takes questionable people like these two and uses their 'gifts' to do good
things. Like the old proverb says, "God writes straight with crooked
lines," or in this case, crooked people. Laban's trickery helps to assure
the existence of the twelve tribes. Had Jacob just married Rachel there would
have been only two children – and ten fewer tribes. God works in unexpected
ways and Jacob becomes the great founding patriarch Israel, and his people will
bear his name. Through his shrewdness and his openness to God Jacob cooperates
in laying another portion of the groundwork for the history of salvation. Again
and again God demonstrates that God is the better 'trickster,' the true master
of the 'art of the deal,' who draws us into the circle of God's life and seeks
to our good – even when we miss the point.
Let's
move a step forward – God enters our experience in the person of Jesus. When
Jesus begins his ministry there is one point he repeatedly makes, "The
kingdom of God is at hand." All of the parables we've been reading for the
last several weeks, and for that matter the core theology of Matthew's Gospel,
point to the kingdom of God. What we see from the life of Jesus and his teaching
is that the kingdom of God isn't what people expected then and for some odd
reason after all these years it still isn't what we expect it to be.
The
kingdom of God isn't about borders or boundaries. The kingdom of God isn't about
time or space. The kingdom of God is about relationship. The New Testament
scholar Norman Perrin writes:
The
kingdom of God is the power of God expressed in deeds; it is that which God does
wherein it becomes evident that he is king. It is not a place or community ruled
by God; it is not even the abstract idea of reign of kingship of God. It is
quite concretely the activity of God as king." [The
Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus, p. 185]
God's activity as king is to establish a relationship with humanity. What we see time and again in the Scripture, and in our own experience if we're watching closely, is God at work drawing us closer – not only to God, but also to each other.
So, the kingdom of God comes in unexpected ways and by unexpected means. Like the mustard seed the kingdom starts small within us and then produces a lush plant that opens to others and their needs. Like the leaven, a little bit of the kingdom can change a great deal and do it almost unnoticed, as our influence can make a difference in the lives of others, in our church, our school, our work and our community at large. If we nurture the kingdom within us it will produce the passion that will drive us to seek this treasure, this pearl of great price in places or people we never thought possible. The net of the kingdom reaches out and embraces the entire world and draws it in close. It's simply not what we expect.
At the turn of the last century a French Biblical scholar, Alfred Loisy, wrote a book, The Gospel and the Church. As a result of his writing he was deprived of his priesthood and excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church for being a 'modernist.' Loisy has many good things to say. At one point he says, "Jesus foretold the kingdom and it was the church that came . . ." What a let down! The kingdom of God can even work through the church, however. God works in our midst and invites us again and again to open ourselves to relationship, like the wise stewards or scribes who bring "treasures new and old" from the storehouse. The message is ancient, yet it's fresh and ever new. Loisy wrote:
The kingdom is for those God pardons, and God pardons all, provided they pardon themselves. Thus the kingdom is for those who are good after the example of God, and in organizing the present life on a basis of charity, the gospel realizes already the kingdom, whose full and final coming will only, as it were, assure the happiness and immortality of charitable men. But the kingdom is actually this everlasting happiness. Its root is within; it lies like a precious seed in the soul of each believer; but in this state it is hidden, rudimentary, imperfect, and it awaits its perfection in the future.
[The
Gospel and the Church, p. 76]
We are invited to share this “eternal happiness” now. To obtain it our task is to expect the unexpected, cooperate with God in the bringing of the kingdom, because with God the future is always present.
Look, then, for evidences of God's kingdom, God's gracious activity, all around you. We could even say here at First Church that the kingdom of God is like a whole list of good things that start small.
· The kingdom of God is like a group of young people and their parents who work and plan so they may learn more of God's love and share it with others in a faraway place.
· The kingdom of God is like a group of women and men who faithfully visit those who are shut-in or see to it folks who have no way to come here to worship have a ride.
· The kingdom of God is like a group of people who make sure that there's a meal for the Saint Vincent center folks once a month and that there are meals in the freezer for any who might need one.
· The kingdom of God is like a church softball team that seeks to represent their local church well and are passionate enough to win a game, even though they can't even field a full team.
· The kingdom of God is like those people who give of time and talent that treasures new and old are shared in Bible studies, discussion groups, and Sunday School classes.
· The kingdom of God is like people who work in this church to build relationships that welcome, include, and nurture all who walk through the doors of this meetinghouse.
· The kingdom of God is like those people who tirelessly promote fellowship in our church through the coffee hours, the dinners, and other social occasions.
· The kingdom of God is all around us . . . if we take time look.
Forgive me if my examples seem a little mundane, but that makes my point, doesn't it? Look, then, to the simplest things and look there for God. The kingdom of God is expecting the unexpected.