Preaching text: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
It seems Jesus is not quite through throwing agricultural parables at us this week. That really isn’t much of a surprise. After all, these vast crowds he was teaching were largely made up of farmers or folk from small towns who were connected to or perhaps only one generation separated from the family farm. They understood the images, even if the real message underneath the metaphor often went over their heads.
Of course, not all the parables we have today are of an agricultural nature. One can suspect that Matthew, the evangelist, found this a convenient spot in the life of Jesus to take some editorial license, placing a number of short one-sentence parables together here rather than tell a separate overarching narrative for each. Still, it is the first two, the agricultural ones, that I want to focus on today.
Once again we begin with the image of a seed. As it was with the sower and the weeds amidst the wheat, the seed is the word of God. It doesn’t take much to do powerful things. The yeast in the second parable highlights that. I saw an amusing meme on the internet this week; a news report about a bread truck carrying yeasted flour that got a little too hot in the summer sun and left a trail of leavened bread dough behind it. I could see Jesus revising his parable for modern day after that incident. The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a bread truck on a hot summer day. Just a little heat and you’ve got one heck of a mess.
But the overall point of any and all of these is that it doesn’t take a lot to do a lot.
And yet, evangelism remains a dirty word in many Christian circles. Filled with nightmarish images of knocking on the doors of strangers, handing out tracts on the street corner, and any number of aged obsolete (and ineffective) strategies. It’s the fear of looking stupid or offending someone.
I know for my part I used to be intimidated by those who knew the Scriptures better than I did. People who could quote chapter and verse, those were the folks who could do real evangelism. Not some scrub like me. As I’ve aged however, I’ve come to realize people like that are about as rare as diamonds and gold. Most folks in the church haven’t opened a Bible in decades, as evidenced by their embrace of the idolatry that the Scriptures were written by Americans for Americans only. Excuse me, let me clarify, written by white conservative Americans for white conservative Americans only.
I’ve started taking a new route to Canadochly for my office hours. It takes me past a house that has a giant wooden cross sculpture in the front yard. A bald eagle stands atop the cross and the word “Trump” is carved across the front of it where Jesus' corpus would be on a crucifix.
Love the president or hate him, there’s something outright blasphemous about that. No President of either party should ever be equated with our Jesus.
Everything wrong with American Christianity in one single image.
The threat isn’t knowledge of Scripture, it’s ignorance of it.
But we here gathered are not ignorant of what matters most in Scripture. One of you approached me some weeks ago and said “I think you want us to understand that God loves us. That’s pretty much all you preach on.” YES. And that’s all one really needs to be an evangelist. Show people that God loves them.
And boy, is that desperately needed right now.
A year or so ago, we heard the chant from the streets about “Black lives matter.” A counter-chant put forth by those uncomfortable with issues of race in America was “All lives matter.” But we’ve gotten where we are today as a nation and a society because “no lives matter.” That’s really the truth of it. Not yours. Not mine. Not anyone’s.
My wife and I have more pre-existing medical conditions than we can count. And yet our government just this week debated over whether we could keep the paltry amount of health insurance we’ve gotten under the ACA. I don’t feel my life matters to anyone up there in Washington.
Thank you, Senator McCain, for giving me some hope.
The people of my home state have languished under generations of poverty and, now with the coal industry on the decline, what few good jobs remain are evaporating quickly. They don’t feel their lives matter.
And, of course, Black lives matter came about because so many African-Americans are dying, at the hands of cops, vigilantes, and each other. (And, yes, despite right-wing screeds to the contrary, they do talk about that.) They’ve been marching to make their lives matter to others because they haven’t for so very long.
On Justice Sunday, we heard anew the call from our Lord to “love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with God.” The call to do something. The call to LOVE people and not just as a sentimental emotion, but as an active vigorous effort to make life better for them.
To me, that’s evangelism. It’s not merely telling someone “God loves you,” it’s telling them “God loves you and because of that, I’m going to fight for you. I’m going to do everything I can to make your life better than it is now” and following through and doing it.
Because that’s what Jesus did. If he saw someone who was sick, he healed them. He cleansed the lepers. Made the blind to see. And while we may not have his miraculous powers, that is a model intended for us to follow. Do good to others in every way you can. Heal the sick. Feed the hungry. Protect the weak. Speak for those without voice.
The world needs that now more than ever. The world needs people of good conscience to stand up for what is right, good, and just. The world needs the Church to be the Church as Jesus envisioned it, a place of mercy, compassion, and justice. And those things will happen when you and I and our brothers and sisters start doing what Jesus has called us to do with the tiny little mustard seed of the Word that we have in our hearts.
The world will not take that kindly. It’s all eaten up with hate and nihilistic despair. It will push back. But remember, as Paul tells us today, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
We may not think of ourselves as much. Ordinary folk in York county, PA. But we have everything we need to change the world. We have the seed of faith. We have knowledge of the Word and its priorities. And we have a God who has already won the victory over death. What on Earth can stop us? Go, spread the Word and make a better world. Amen.
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