Proper 12, Year A | Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
July 30, 2023
the Rev. Jonathan Hanneman
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“Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.” – Matthew 13:34[1]
Over the last few weeks our Gospel readings have taken us through the many parables Jesus offers in Matthew 13. We started with the parable of the sower and jumped to Jesus telling the disciples what it meant. Last week we heard the parable of the wheat and the weeds and then, similarly to that first week, skipped a bunch of verses to get to the explanation. This week we’ve popped back to fill in a couple of the stories Jesus had shared with the entire crowd and then leapfrogged forward again to the final three parables, which he appears to have told a smaller group of followers.
With parables being rooted in the concepts of simile and analogy, it’s easy for us to get caught up in the details—after all, what good is a parable if you can’t figure it out? Combine that curiosity with our American sense of individualism, and we frequently end up going beyond simply trying to understand what the story means to attempting to search out what the “me” aspect of what it all is. What kind of soil am I? Am I the good seed or the bad? What’s my role in the parable of the yeast or the hidden treasure or the pearl? When I’m scooped up in the net, will God decide I’m worth keeping, or will I be tossed into the fire? People have wondered and worried about those kinds of questions for generations, leaving a plethora of books and sermons in their wake. But our intense interest in those more detailed aspects of the tales frequently leads us to overlook their primary point. We need to recognize that these parables aren’t about you or me or dirt or weeds or fish or dough or seeds or even what any of those particular items might represent or mean.
There’s absolutely no secret to the focus of these tales. Jesus sets his intention in front of us repeatedly: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field.”[2] “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.”[3] “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast.”[4] “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.”[5] “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.”[6] “The kingdom of heaven is like a net.”[7] All the stories we hear are, first and foremost, about the Kingdom of Heaven, which means that any interpretations we draw from them ought to find their base in that truth.
As I’ve been thinking about these over the past few weeks, one common aspect has begun to emerge for me: the concept of “harvest.” That’s certainly easier to see in the stories about plants and fishing, but it’s there in the others as well, although more in line with our idea of a big win or payoff. What’s the Kingdom of Heaven like? It’s like planting seeds…and awaiting the grain. It’s like kneading yeast into flour and waiting for the dough to rise. It’s like selling everything in order to buy something far more precious. It’s like dragging a net out of the sea and sorting through the catch within. It’s all about exchanging labor or the less valuable for something more desirable.
One important thing to note here is that neither the Kingdom of Heaven nor Jesus’ references to “the end of the age” are necessarily the equivalent of what we think of as the capital E-W End of the World. The meaning is more like our concept of “the end of an era.” It’s like how historical ages transition—Ancient Roman society gave way to the Medieval Age which eventually gave way to the Modern Age—or how computers the size of rooms developed into mainframe systems that were eventually replaced by home PCs that have ultimately led to the current Internet of Things, where our thermostats, lightbulbs, and toothbrushes have more technology and processing power packed into them than entire buildings full of those calculating machines from 60 years ago.
Despite our imaginations and expectations of vast destruction—along with the erasure of humanity as we know it—the end of the age does not have to be a bad thing. Yes, some doors close. Following along with the development of computers, programming languages come and go. Software platforms rise and fall. The structural basis of what technology even is may appear entirely unrelated to what it was in the past. The hottest skillsets become passe while new ones constantly evolve to prepare for what’s coming next. When we appreciate the outcome, we forget just how hard change can be. It involves not only a lot of work but, for some, a continual experience of loss. It’s okay to mourn those formerly successful and important aspects of our lives as they age into history. But the world keeps turning, the future keeps coming, and life flows on.
Here at St. Andrew’s we have our own “end of the age” to address. We’ve experienced a number of remarkable successes since our founding: multiple generations of faithful parishioners, building expansion, the beginnings of El Cauldito and Community of Hope, and launching the Hospitality House, to name a few. We’ve had some truly impressive family programming and stellar music over the years. Swing to the present, and our people are still participating in a lot of great stuff, continuing to support some of those earlier ministries while nurturing new ones like Circles of Hope and Second Sunday Suppers and sponsoring multiple other gift and service projects. All of these things are harvests worth celebrating!
However, along with the rest of the world, Las Cruces has been changing underneath our feet for decades, and surviving the pandemic has made the close of an earlier era all too clear. It’s time to make plans to move beyond the desire to simply survive upheaval and turn to efforts that allow us to truly thrive. So then, how do we face our new world? How do we look ahead and plan for the next harvest? After the service we’re going to be introducing plans for some congregational listening sessions. These will be opportunities to celebrate things you love about St. Andrews, discuss things you think could use some improving or updating, and dream up what might be still to come. It's a chance to appreciate who we have been, to consider the realities of who we are right now, and then to begin making practical steps toward what we hope to be in the future.
So what would we like St. Andrew’s to look in the future? What—and how—would we like to grow over the next decade or so? What have we planted that we need to continue to tend, and what other crops might thrive in our changing climate? These are the kinds of things we need to consider together, to imagine what we hope the Kingdom of Heaven might look like in years to come.
We’re experiencing a transition, the end of one era, but this isn’t the End of the World. And Jesus’ didn’t offer us these parables the past few weeks simply to give us insight into “the End.” He’s encouraging us to prepare for the coming harvest, to be aware of the efforts needed to adapt along the way, and to plan for outcome we hope might yet arrive. The point isn’t to reject the past or to ignore the needs of the present but to dream, discover, and develop what may yet be, to wonder together “where—and how—do we grow from here?”
“The kingdom of heaven is like…”[8]
[1] All Bible quotations are from the NRSV unless otherwise noted.
[2] Matthew 13:24
[3] Matthew 13:31
[4] Matthew 13:33
[5] Matthew 13:44
[6] Matthew 13:45
[7] Matthew 13:47
[8] Matthew 13:31, 33, 44, 45, 47