Sermon for Sunday, June 24, 2007

WHAT ARE WE MISSING?

3^rd in a series on The Subversive  Parables of Jesus

by

Rev. Cindy Bates

Scripture:  Matthew 13:10-23

Then the disciples came and asked him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" ¹⁰   He answered, "To you it has been given to know the secrets  of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ¹¹

For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. ¹²   The reason I speak to them in parables is that "seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.' ¹³   With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: 'You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. ¹⁴  For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn--and I would heal them.' ¹⁵   But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. ¹⁶   Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it. ¹⁷   "Hear then the parable of the sower. ¹⁸  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. ¹⁹   As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²⁰  yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. ²¹   As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²²  But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." ²³

In Megan McKenna’s book, Parables: The Arrows of God, she tells this story.

Once upon a time there was a king who ruled a small kingdom.  It wasn’t great, and it wasn’t really known for any of its resources or people.  Pretty ordinary! But the king did have a diamond, a great perfect diamond that had been in his family for generations.  He kept it on display for all to see and appreciate.  People came from all over the country to admire it and gaze at it.

Soon the word of this diamond spread to neighboring countries, and more people came to look at it.  As time went on the people felt that the diamond was theirs; somehow it gave them a sense of pride, of dignity, of worth.  Then one day a soldier came to the king with the news that, although no one had touched the diamond, for it was guarded night and day, the diamond was cracked.  The king ran to see, and sure enough, there was a crack right through the middle of the diamond.

Immediately, he summoned all the jewelers of the land and had them look at the diamond.  One after the other they examined the diamond and gave the bad news to the king: the diamond was useless; it was irredeemably flawed.  The king was crushed, so were the people.  Somehow they felt they had lost everything. 

Then out of nowhere came an old man who claimed to be a jeweler.  He asked to see the diamond.  After examining it, he looked up and confidently told the king, “I can fix it.  In fact, I can make it better than it was before.”  The king was shocked and a bit leery.  The old man said, “Give me the jewel and, and in a week I’ll bring it back fixed.”  Now the king was not about to let the stone out of his sight, even if it was ruined, so he gave the old man a room, all the tools, the food and drink he needed, and he waited.  The whole kingdom waited.  It was a long week. 

At the end of the week the old man appeared with the stone in his hand and gave it to the king.  The king could not believe his eyes.  It was magnificent.  The old man had fixed it, and he had made it even better than it was before! He had used the crack that ran through the middle of the stone as a stem, and he carved an intricate, full-blown rose, leaves, and thorns into the diamond.  It was exquisite.

The king was overjoyed and offered the old man half his kingdom.  He had taken something beautiful and perfect and improved upon it!  But the old man refused in front of everybody, saying, “I didn’t do that at all.  What I did was to take something flawed and cracked at its heart and turn it into something beautiful.” 

McKenna ends the story by saying this is all any of us can hope to do: take something that is cracked and flawed at its heart and turn it into something beautiful to offer to God.

I liked hearing that story this week…you know some weeks you just feel a little more cracked and flawed than other times. Jesus certainly knew about cracks and flaws related to our humanity, and he knew the power of story to help us understand what some of our cracks and flaws might be, and what they could be turned into.

Jesus was a master story teller and his favorite form of story was the parable.  It was an indirect form of communicating that was designed to make his hearers think.  I like the definition of the parable from British scholar C.H. Dodd.  He says, “At its simplest the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.”  Jesus used this story form to get people to really think about their life…to take a look at some possible cracks or flaws not only in their thoughts but in their actions and then respond to this new perception, this new vision with a changed life.  Parables were a way for Jesus to get people to think about the question, “What are you not seeing, hearing, understanding?”  “What are you missing?”

Today’s scripture from Matthew brings us to a place where Jesus has told the crowds a parable about the sower and the seed. (This story can also be found in the Gospels Mark and in Luke.)  In Matthew’s version, the disciples ask Jesus why he speaks in parables and Jesus answers almost with a lament, a grieving that people do not get what it is they are missing.  He quotes the prophet Isaiah when he says, “You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive.  For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn…and I would heal them.”  I hear those words and the image that I get is God weeping for God’s people, because they/we are unwilling to be healed, unwilling to change to turn in God’s direction.

For me, this parable of the sower and Jesus’ response to why he told the parable is terribly frightening and miraculously comforting, all at the same time.  On the one hand, it is almost a resignation to the truth that in this life, people are just not going to get it!  On the other hand, that is not what God desires and God says if you are willing to listen so you can hear and look so you can see and understand with your heart, life will be very blessed and produce far more than you ever dreamed or imagined.  I also think part of this passage, especially in verse 16, illustrates an almost humorous, ironic glimpse of humanity when Jesus turns to his disciples and basically acts like a cheerleader or a coach and tries to alleviate their fears and encourage them by saying, “Don’t worry, you are going to be all right.  You’re getting it.  You are on the right track.  You are seeing and hearing and you will be blessed.”  What we know from studying the scriptures is that these cracked, flawed, slow, stubborn, at times, self-centered disciples, many times did not “get it” even  being with Jesus constantly.  We have so many examples of them really being dull and missing the point altogether.  The key here seemed to be their desire to “get it”, their desire and willingness to turn toward God.  At least that is what I am hoping for, because many times I know I don’t get it…at least I have trouble getting it when I am the one that needs to change or think differently or see a new vision.  I think I get it really well when it’s someone else, another group, another denomination, a family member, a parishioner, you for instance, that needs to change.  At least for once I want to say, “It’s not about me! Surely, not me!” What Jesus was trying to say with his parables was, “Hey, it is about you.  There are things you need to hear and see and do if you are going to be who God is calling you to be in this life. “

Last week the Rocky Mountain United Methodist Church had its Annual Conference here in Denver.  Clergy and Laypersons from a three state area came together to talk about ministry and mission, people and places, issues and policies that make up our life together as  the United Methodist Church.  The theme was “Diversity: Making the Invisible Visible.”  The theme was meant to remind us that we need to figure out how to truly see one another as children of God if we are really going to be the Church together. You could say that we came together to see and hear and understand what God was wanting for us as a denomination, as a Church, at least in this area of God’s Kingdom.  But as usual in the “kingdom” God’s people don’t always agree and we did not always hear and see and understand in the same way. And as I sat there with my perceptions and opinions and my votes, looking out over that gathering of humanity, I could see where God had sown great seeds of possibility but there were lots of folks, in my opinion, that were not getting it.  They were speaking or voting or acting in the ways that were not producing good results.  And, as in Jesus’ parable, it was really easy for me to see where the rocks and the thorns and the weeds were showing up.  It was an incredible opportunity for me to see and hear and understand… and… and… become very self-righteous.  So, I am sure much of the time my seeing, hearing and understanding did not do a whole lot to produce a greater harvest when it came to the end result of our time together.  You see…, I know you see…that it is a whole lot easier to hear the parables of Jesus and see someone else as the lost sheep, the rich fool, the self-righteous Pharisee, the dishonest manager, the unforgiving judge…but I also know that is not why Jesus told parables.  He told parables so people could look inward, not outward.  He told parables so we, individual, struggling, imperfect human beings would look into our own hearts and minds and ask, “What am I missing God?”  “What am I doing that is not helping you produce a great harvest, a bumper crop, an incredible yield for my life on this earth?  Again, in Megan McKenna’s book on parables she says, “The reasoning behind this tactic of telling stories, of teaching in parables, is to make the people look and hear and realize they are not looking, hearing and understanding.  They are refusing consciously to respond and not allowing Jesus to heal them, convert them and tell them the truth.  Jesus resorts to parables because our hearts are so sluggish, slow to respond and to take responsibility for who we are and what we do, religiously, humanly with God and one another.”

Sometimes I wish we could all make an appointment with a spiritual physician for a yearly examination and we could go through a little x-ray machine that would take a look into our hearts and minds and make an accurate diagnosis.  “Cindy, you are suffering from self-righteousness.”  “Tom, we need to treat your hidden resentment.”  “Sophia, your vision does not allow you to see how you have hurt other people.”  “Robert, your inability to forgive is cutting off your air supply.”  “Joan, your hearing does not allow you to hear anyone’s voice but your own.” (You might want to fill in your own name.)  You get the idea.   We need some way to keep us from missing something, something within us that is causing a spiritual dis-ease, something that spreads through our lives producing rocks and thorns and weeds in the midst of our relationships with God and one another.

You see, in the midst of all these disturbing stories, called parables, where God, through Jesus, is trying to get us to look at ourselves, there is always good news, because while these stories make us take a long hard look at ourselves, they are also asking us to take a look at what these stories are saying about the nature of God.  God, who is searching tirelessly for us as lost sheep, being merciful no matter when we show up, forgiving and rejoicing when we find our way home, blessing  even a faith as tiny as a mustard seed, picking us up and binding our wounds even when no one else seems to notice, extravagantly sowing seeds among the rocks and thorns and weeds of our life.  It’s all there in these incredible, radical, surprising stories of life with God.

What do you think God is trying to say to you through these parables told by Jesus?  What if our prayer for this day, this week, for our life eternally with God would be, “God, show me what I am missing…what I am not seeing, what I am not hearing, what I am not understanding?  Help me to understand and truly be willing to be who you are calling me to be.”  Let us always remember that with God nothing, no thing, no one is irredeemably flawed.

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