“The Realm of God is Like This” Part 6 A Treasurer and a Treasurer Hunter Wildwood Mennonite Church // July 26, 2020 Worship Leader: Josephine // Music Leader: Krista // Sermon: Joe H
Welcome to Wildwood...... or rather, thanks for welcoming us into wherever you are in this at-home worship format.
This is not where we thought we'd be this summer! We are grateful for the familiar patterns and relationships that we have been able to resume, yet we are still grieving the loss of those that have changed and we are still feeling our way through the murkiness of whatever it is that is emerging.
As people of faith, we trust that God is present in all of those spaces: in the familiar, in the grieving, in the unknown. And we are grateful that you have joined us in this place, a reminder that we never walk alone. Welcome.
We would like to welcome each and everyone of you to our worship service today. May we all experience God’s presence wherever you are joining us from this morning. Let us take a moment to calm ourselves, and listen to our music for meditation.
Music For Meditation // Give Yourself to Love // Kate Wolf // Sung by Kim Thiessen
NOTE: All prayers & liturgies in today’s service are quoting, paraphrasing or inspired by the words of US Congressman John Lewis, civil rights activist, who passed away July 17, 2020.
Call to Worship Leader: God calls us to be a light to the world ALL: If not us, then who? If not now, then when? Leader: God calls us to be salt for the earth ALL: If not us, then who? If not now, then when? Leader: God invites us to get into good trouble for the least of these ALL: If not us, then who? If not now, then when?
Peace Candle “You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone — any person or any force — dampen, dim or diminish your light Release the need to hate, … to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won.”
Amen
Offering Prayer John Lewis once said,
“We have been too quiet for too long. There comes a time when you have to say something. You have to make a little noise. You have to move your feet. This is the time.”
May our offerings today & throughout this week reflect our desire to say something, to make noise, to move our feet toward the beloved community vision of Jesus Christ.
Amen
Song // Ubi Caritas (Where there Is charity and love, there God is) Ubi caritas et amor Ubi caritas Deus ibi est
Children’s Story // Click here for video storytime with Sarita! Today’s story is Joseph and the Sabbath Fish by Eric Kimmel. Scripture // Matthew 13:44-52 // The Inclusive Bible translation “The kindom of heaven is like a buried treasure found in a field. The ones who discovered it hid it again, and, rejoicing at the discovery, went and sold all their possessions and bought that field.
“Or again, the kindom of heaven is like a merchant’s search for fine pearls. When one pearl of great value was found, the merchant went back and sold everything else and bought it.
“Or again, the kindom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collected all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishers hauled it ashore. Then, sitting down, they collected the good ones in a basket and threw away those that were of no use. This is how it will be at the end of time. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the just and throw the wicked into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
“Have you understood all this?”
“Yes,” they answered.
To this Jesus replied, “Every religious scholar who has become a student of the kindom of heaven is like the head of a household who can bring from the storeroom both the new and the old.”
Sermon // “One Thing” // Joe Heikman (If you’d rather watch than read, click here for the full video version on youtube)
Remember that time Jesus encouraged his followers to commit real estate fraud?
“The Realm of Heaven is like a buried treasure found in a field. The one who discovered it hid it again, and, rejoicing at the discovery, went and sold all their possessions and bought that field.” (Matt 13:44)
This guy finds a treasure buried in a field, which has to be either a natural treasure like a gemstone or it’s something someone else lost, like a wallet or maybe...buried pirate gold or something. Either way, not his treasure, and not his field.
And obviously he knows this is not legit, because he re-hides the treasure--not the move of someone who is not up to something shady. Then to give his find or theft some appearance of legitimacy, he sells everything he has to raise the money to buy the field--clearly without notifying the owner of its true value. Paperwork in hand, he claims the treasure as his own, cackling all the way.
Scandal! Corruption in the kingdom of God! Click here for the shocking details!
Surely, Jesus is not endorsing the idea that you can lie, cheat and steal your way into the realm of God. “Finders = Keepers” is not the 11th Commandment. :)
My hunch is that there is something lost in the translation across the culture gap here, something about land ownership traditions or a detail in this particular situation Jesus describes that would have made this sound quite different back then than it does now.
But I do like the hint that there’s something mischievous, devious even, something subversive in this image of spirituality. The reign of God is going to challenge the norms, push the boundaries, upset business as usual, Robin Hood-style? Not to the point of fraud, hear me clearly on that...but Jesus is not afraid of being seen as scandalous by those who don’t understand.
The classic interpretation of this parable is that faith is worth everything, that Jesus is calling his followers--and us--to give it all away, to lay everything down to follow the way of God.
And somehow, that one treasure is the thing that will make sacrificing everything else worthwhile.
I’ve long found that to be a compelling idea. One of the songs on the soundtrack of my life is “One Thing” by Finger Eleven:
If I traded it all // If I gave it all away for one thing // Just for one thing If I sorted it out // If I knew all about this one thing Wouldn't that be something?
Not that I’ve really ever done much about that. I have largely made my faith the center of my career, and I’d say that I’ve put the Way of Jesus at the center of my worldview, theoretically at least.
But I haven’t sacrificed very much along the way. The realm of God is not the only thing I treasure. If I’m honest, the most attractive part of that “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” verse is the second line, about all the other things being added unto me …
To trade it all for one thing, well, that would indeed be something. My other hesitation with this parable is the growing awareness that a single-minded focus on “one thing” is not actually healthy and fruitful.
One of the big Netflix hits of the lockdown has been The Last Dance documentary series on Michael Jordan’s final championship basketball season with the Chicago Bulls. The series shows MJ at the top of his game, laser-focused on winning, relentlessly driven to make himself and his teammates the best they could be.
And Jordan’s competitive drive was effective like nothing before or since on the basketball court: six championships for the Bulls, 5 Most Valuable Player awards for Jordan, and a practically unchallenged legacy as the greatest basketball player of all time.
But The Last Dance also documents the cost of that drive to win. It depicts Jordan’s obsession with dominance leading to a compulsive gambling habit. It talks about his fixation on humiliating anyone who crossed him. It hints at the price his family continues to pay for his passion for greatness. It shows Jordan verbally abusing his teammates, and even in the present-day interviews in the series, he justifies that abuse as just doing what was necessary to make his team greater. His drive for greatness was his excuse to demean and stomp on everyone else.
Michael Jordan is the epitome of selling out completely in the pursuit of the “one thing”, and apparently it was that relentless motivation that made him the greatest. But in the series he comes off as obsessive, a self-centered jerk. His peers respect his legacy, but it doesn’t look like many people really like him. Fans and sportswriters who grew up idolizing Jordan watched the behind-the-scenes footage and say, if that’s what it takes to be the greatest, is it really worth it?
Of course that’s just sports, and there are more important quests in the world. But I’ve also known people of faith who seem to be on that path as well. They’ve devoted their lives entirely to their religion, to Christian ideals, a code of ethics, a particular lifestyle, a sacred calling.
And like I said, I’ve always admired that and I used to aspire to that myself. But, at least from the outside, some of those sold-out people make it look miserable! Some of those highly spiritual people seem so full of anger, jealousy, animosity. Not always, of course, but sometimes it doesn’t look like the single-minded pursuit of faith is all that effective in creating love, joy, peace, patience and the other Fruits of the Spirit.
And so I wonder, is that what Jesus really means in this parable? The parable talks about the joy of discovering the treasure, but that deep joy seems to be missing from so many real-life examples of the single-minded, sacrificial pursuit of the one thing.
It seems to me that the what and the how of the quest are as important as the quest itself. The blind pursuit of one thing, even something as valuable as the realm of God, seems to be missing something.
I think that’s why Jesus paired that parable with a second one:
Somewhere along the line I saw an old comic strip version of this parable, something like the old Ziggy cartoon character. The comic illustrates this merchant selling everything he has to buy the great pearly, even the clothes on his back. And so he’s totally naked but he has his pearl, and he goes off dancing into the sunset, totally captivated by his treasure.
Again, like the first parable, there’s the emphasis on the joy in this obsession with the pearl; selling everything to gain the pearl is a pleasure, not a sacrifice.
But notice that in this second story, the roles are reversed. In the first parable, the Realm of Heaven is like the treasure, the thing that is pursued. And in the second, the Realm of Heaven is the merchant, the pursuer, the one searching for and finding the priceless pearl.
If we are to read the first parable as inviting us, the followers of Jesus, to play the part of the pursuer, then I think it follows that, in the second part, the treasure that is pursued is also us.
The second parable completes the circle. The “pearl of great price,” that is you, perhaps collectively, perhaps as individuals. Do you ever see it that way, that the Realm of God is joyfully pursuing you, longing to claim you for their own?
To me, this reading of the second parable restores what was missing from the first, namely, the joy. On its own, the single-minded pursuit of the “one thing” is obsession, tragedy even, a compulsive need to be filled. But if that which you are pursuing is in turn pursuing you as well? That’s a relationship. That is romance. That’s whole-heartedness. That is love.
And isn't that what Jesus taught and lived? John chapter 14:
As Richard Rohr calls it, the whole of reality is the “Divine Dance,” the Creator loving and being loved by the Creation. That’s what we are meant to be part of, to join the dance. The pursuit and the being pursued, there is room for both; it is the wholeness is what makes it the realm of God.
And that leads into the next parable that Jesus offers to them:
Now that second part tends to get all the attention, because it’s a pretty intense warning that there will be consequences for that which is good and that which is evil.
But don’t miss that the parable itself is another image of wholeness - a net that is collecting every kind of fish. Often when Christians talk about the realm of heaven, it’s a question of who’s in and who’s out? How do we get in?
And, on our less-than-gracious days, how can we be sure that those people that we dislike are going to get what’s coming to them?
But here, everyone is caught up in God’s net. There aren’t insiders and outsiders, as both good and evil are present in the net. The distinction between good and evil, that will have to wait for another time. For now, we’re all in this together--already captured by the realm of God.
As with the parable of the pearl merchant, the image here is not the human pursuit of the heavenly, it is heaven that is pursuing and claiming humanity. So in this parable, God’s net is large enough for the good and the evil. And the Greek language is fuzzy enough here to allow that this also might be less straightforward than we like to think. Most of us read that last part as the angels as separating the “evil ones” from the “righteous ones” and throwing the evil ones into the blazing furnace.
But as the NRSV translation reflects, the Greek doesn’t say “evil ones” and “righteous ones,” it just says “evil” and “righteous.” So it could mean that the evil individuals will be separated from the righteous individuals and then sent to the fires of hell. OR it could mean that “that which is evil” is being weeded out from “that which is good”, and the furnace where they are cast is the purifying fire of refinement.
Both the evil and the good live in all of us, in my experience, and the realm of God is in the process of sanitizing and sanctifying all of us, and the refiner’s fire is a painful process. But the whole time we’re all still caught up in the all-encompassing realm of God.
As my seminary professor warned me back in the day, I only know enough Greek to be dangerous, so don’t put too much stock into my interpretation. But I do think there is some wiggle room there, and I also think that was the whole point of Jesus’ teaching in parables, to make us think, to create space for conversation and different angles.
And in this whole collection of seven parables in Matthew 13, there has been a theme of wholeness, everything belonging and being caught up together in the realm of God.
So after seven parables and two private tutoring sessions for the disciples, Jesus asks them:
Here again, wholeness. Understanding the realm of God is not an either/or, it’s a both/and.
The realm of God is not something brand new and progressive; the realm of God has deep roots, it is a tradition that goes all the way back to The Beginning. Jesus did not leave that behind, but firmly grounded himself and grew out of that tradition.
Likewise, the treasure of faith is not only the core of wisdom passed down through the generations. It is also growth, development, new ideas springing out and away from the old roots.
As my over-quoted friend Rob Bell says it, “The Christian tradition is one of innovation Change is … the tradition.”
The realm of God is constantly being born, again. There are treasures, old and new, in this house.
So those are the parables of Matthew 13. I realize that this is all fairly abstract; parables are often like that.
So I’m not sure what it means for you to pursue the treasure of the Realm of God wholeheartedly this week, but I wish you joy in that pursuit.
And I don’t know how you can feel and know that you are likewise the object of God’s pursuit and affection, but I hope you will feel and know how wide and deep the love of God really is.
I don’t know when or how the goodness and the evil that exists in and around you will be sorted out, but in the meantime know that the existence of either and both does not disqualify you from the orbit of God’s Love.
And I don’t know if you are in need of ancient truths or creative innovations, but I trust that when you seek, you will find.
In whatever field you find yourself this week, and with whatever treasure makes its way to you, may you be filled with the sacred fullness and wholeness of God, who lives in you and in whom you live. Amen.
Song of Response // Seek Ye First // Hymnal Worship Book #324
Sharing Time // "Hey Wildwood..." online sharing Not hearing from one another in person through the Sharing Time is a significant loss for many of us. It’s not the same, but one way to express your grief, anxiety, prayer requests and gratitude is through the “Hey Wildwood” link above. If you’re able, join us for our Sunday Morning Zoom gatherings, or check your email for the sharing items from last Sunday. Or maybe now would be a good time to pause your reading to call someone from church or elsewhere that you haven’t heard from this week.
Congregational Prayer We are one people, one family We live in the same house, Breathe the same air, Dream dreams, We struggle, but we do so in community. Because when we struggle alone, the burden is so heavy. When we suffer alone, the pain is too much to bear. When we endure harassment, assault, the hate & desire for revenge can weigh us down & poison our hearts.
But we can struggle together, suffer together, & learn how to lay down hatred for hatred is too heavy a burden to bear.
Amen
Song // God’s Highway // Sandra McCracken
Benediction “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”