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Sermon: The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (A) - 24th July 2011
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7, 8 and 10 am
Readings: Genesis 29:15-28; Psalm 105:1-11; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:44-58
Every life is a story. Every life has a beginning, a direction and an ending. Whenever you attend a funeral you hear of one more life, one more story. Perhaps you knew the person for just a few years. Perhaps you knew them during their last years. But at their funeral you get the full story from the beginning to the end, and that part that you knew, fits into the context of that longer story. And often that means for us we have to think again about the person we knew. We thought we understood the person, but when we get the full story we understand them better, we have a deeper perspective of who they are.
The big story changes everything. I always remember the man I saw in hospital whose legs were amputated below the knees. I would see him pushing his wheel chair around the hospital each day. I would ask him how he was. He always replied with a smile that everything was fine. When I sat with him in a proper conversation and asked how he was recovering from surgery and how was he managing the rehab he gave the same response. He smiles as if he didn’t have a care in the world. I wondered how that could be true. He was over 80. He’d had major surgery. They were trying to teach him to walk again with two artificial legs. How could he take all this so calmly? How could he treat this trauma as if it were nothing? Had he lost contact with the real world? Had he become delusional?
So I confronted him. I asked how he could be so cheerful considering his surgery, considering the long path of painful rehab he still had to face? So he told me about his early life in Poland. He told me about the German invasion of his country and the day to day struggle to stay alive. He then told me about his capture and imprisonment, of his life in the work camps and the slave labour he performed throughout the war. And so his point was that after all he had survived, this was nothing – nothing. A beautiful hospital, a caring staff, lovely nurses. He said, “Why shouldn’t I be smiling?” Once I knew his story I could better understand the man in front of me.
And Jesus is doing the same thing for us here in Matthew chapter 13. he is reminding us of a story, a very big story. The story is called the Kingdom of Heaven. But here he says something quite odd. He says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like an owner of a house who brings out of his store room new treasures as well as old.” When Jesus explains the kingdom, this phrase is probably one of the most important. Jesus point is that the story of the Kingdom of Heaven is a long one. It goes a long way back before his time on earth. These are the old treasures. But in his teaching, Jesus has some new things to say, so there are the new treasures. So putting it all together, anyone who has an understanding of the Kingdom possesses great treasures, some old and some new.
The story of the Kingdom begins at the start of the Bible with the story of the creation and the beginning of humanity, but a humanity in close fellowship with God. But we know the story doesn’t go well. The Kingdom has a troubled beginning and we might wonder about the future of that kingdom. But there emerges the hope of the coming of the king and a restoration of the Kingdom. That hope is preserved in the community of Israel.
When you read the history of Israel it has a few highs but it is usually a story of disaster after disaster until the whole nation is bundled off into exile in Babylon. When they return home they are a shadow of their former selves, a small nation in a world of bullies, invaded by the latest super-power. By the time of Jesus, the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven seems long faded. Many Jews thought they would do better if they just made friends with Rome. The power of God expressed in his kingdom seemed too remote, too distant and too impossible.
Yet this was the heart of Jesus preaching. When he began to preach he announced that the Kingdom was at hand and Israel must prepare for it. Throughout our gospel reading Jesus explains the supreme worth of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. Or, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. Jesus taught his disciples to pray for the Kingdom “Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” That’s the most practical statement we have to describe the Kingdom of Heaven. We pray that God’s rule will be seen in everything, in every thought and action on earth, as it is in heaven.
And the way Jesus talks about it, just as human history began with a story of a Kingdom at creation so it will end with the victory of the Kingdom and the re-creation of everything. This is why John can write in Revelation, “The voice from the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” This is the big story of the world, where it came from and where it is going. But notice how humanity is intimately caught up in this big story. As a part of the creation its not surprising that we are an integral part of the story of creation and where its all heading.
Not only that, its not just humanity, but each one of us, each individual that is involved. Though the story of the Kingdom of Heaven is a big tory, perhaps the biggest, it is also our story. It was always about individuals and it will always be about individuals, one by one. Notice how Jesus healed. He didn’t snap his fingers and all Israel was cured. Of course he could have done that but instead, it was one by one, individually, as he met people in the crowd, or along the road or by the sea shore. The kingdom of Heaven is about you and me, its about our future, our hope, our destiny. Jesus speaks of treasure old and new because the Kingdom of Heaven covers the whole sweep of human history from the beginning to the end.
Also notice how Matthew contrasts those grand themes with what happens next. Jesus went back to Nazareth and began to preach in the synagogue. No doubt he healed as well because of the reaction of the crowd. Rather than rejoicing to see such miracles and to hear such teaching all the crowd could ask was, “Where did he get this wisdom? Where did he get these powers? He is a carpenter’s son. We know his sisters and brothers.” They took offence at what Jesus was doing. They were not prepared to listen. They were not prepared to hear what Jesus had to say. They could not get past the fact that he had grown up in their town. They couldn’t forget that he was one of them. How could someone from their town be so wise, how could he be so powerful in healing?
Rather than seeing the glory of God in the life of Jesus they were consumed with jealousy, jealous of his wisdom, his teaching, his healing power. But it happens in our own day. As a child I remember reading the gospels and being so impressed with the character of Jesus. I was struck by the goodness of his heart and his compassion for people, no matter how low they had fallen, how weak they were. I couldn’t understand how people could read these words about Jesus and not be impressed. As I matured I never reached a point of disillusionment. Rather as my understanding grew so I better understood the depth of his teaching and the genuineness of his heart.
And yet in spite of all that we can still go through times where we can feel God is far from us, where the words of Jesus fail to make any impact upon us. And it is at these times we can see the unique role of the church. Theologically, we could say we can experience the love of Jesus directly through the love that members of the church show us at these times. It’s at these times when our faith is low that we can rely upon the faith of others.
I have often been asked to pray at a hospital bedside because the patient could not find the words to pray or maybe they were struggling with finding the faith to pray. We are never expected to life the life of faith alone. The life of the hermit is never taught or ever encouraged in the Bible. At times, the burdens we carry can be too heavy to bear. And so we rely on the faith of others, the strength of others, the hope of others to carry us through. We have all been caught up in this big story of the Kingdom of Heaven. We all have a great hope in the fulfilment of the Kingdom. And whether we enjoy good days or bad, that hope can never be taken away. But in the meantime, as we endure the batterings that life brings us, we need to support each other and encourage each other in the hope that we share in that treasure in the field, in that pearl of great price, in that inheritance that is kept secure in heaven for us.