Sermon on 7th Sunday after
Trinity - Clarendon Team Service during Coronvirus
Lockdown – Sunday 26th July 2020
Matthew
13:31-33; 44-52
I just love the three “Ps” of the bible, the Psalms, the Proverbs and
the Parables because each of them, in their own way, addresses everyday
thoughts and problems and enables us to theologically reflect on them. In my role as a spiritual director I often
use modern day analogies and quotes from the three “Ps” in order to get across
theological ideas which otherwise might be difficult to understand. This is precisely what Jesus did, time and
time again during his ministry. He used
everyday situations which everybody folk could understand and he used them to
explain difficult concepts such as, in this morning’s case, what he means when
he talks of “The Kingdom of Heaven”. Here we find him using not just one
parable or analogy but five! These five
stories would appeal each in turn to a gardener, a cook, a treasure hunter, a
collector of fine things and last but not least fishermen, with whom he was
very well acquainted.
The common theme here is, though, that the Kingdom of Heaven is not
easily found and is not obvious at first. We must seek it out and be patient
whilst doing so. The mustard seed will
indeed grow into a fine tree capable of harbouring birds and wild life but we
must tender it and wait for it to grow.
Likewise, we can make unleaven, that is flat bread, quite quickly and
easily with just water and flour– but if we want the more substantial leaven or
raised bread we need to add in a small amount of another ingredient called
yeast and carefully knead the dough in preparation. The treasure hunter, in order to legitimately
lay claim to the treasure he has buried away in a field must first of all buy
the field in order to legally acquire the treasure. The pearl collector may
have to sacrifice much of his present wealth and collection in order to acquire
that one great pearl which he wishes to possess. Finally, the fisherman cast out their net for
certain edible fish but when the net is hauled in they find a myriad of fish
caught in the meshes and therefore must painstakingly sort through them to find
those which are of most value for food.
These are all great analogies from which we learn that the Kingdom of
Heaven is all around us if we take the time and trouble and patience to find
it.
The last analogy which Jesus uses is one that particularly appeals to
me. I was brought up in the fishing town
of Grimsby – at that time the world’s premier fishing port; a wealthy place
whose economy was built on the catching and processing of good quality white
fish. My own grandfather was a trawler skipper and many of my friends came from
fishing families. They would tell me how the fishermen would go out for three
weeks or more at a time hunting for the best fish to bring back. But, in the process, they would often catch
other fish which they would try out first on board to see if there might be a
market for them. They would, like our fishermen in the parable, carefully sift
through the catch. One such fish which
they had previously discarded was the monkfish because of its horrible
appearance but they found the tail to taste a lot like scampi. Today, monkfish
is a delicacy and costs a lot more than the average white fish. It is an example of where there was something
there already but it needed a lot of patience and trial before its worth was
acquired.
In the parable Jesus likens the sorting of the fish as the final
judgment when those who are righteous will be separated from the evil. That is
quite a hard concept for many of us to swallow and reminds us of the Doom
paintings which once adorned many of our churches.
I think the essence of Jesus’s teaching here is that we must always
have good intentions. Being righteous is doing things for the right
reasons. It I all well and good to sow
mustard seeds, bake bread, buy treasure, collect pearls, sort out fish and so on
but if we are doing these things for selfish reasons, not right or righteous
ones, then we are far from finding the Kingdom of Heaven.
Tom Wright puts it this way: “The little parables in Matthew 13 are
all, in their different ways answers to the question “Where is the Kingdom of
Heaven and when will it come?”
“Perhaps”, he says, these are the only sorts of answer we can ever
give.”
The tiny seed will grow, the leaven will work through the lump of
yeast, the treasure is presently hidden, but those who find it will know its
worth like the pearl, and finally, one day maybe the peculiar and odd fish,
like our monkfish, will be sorted out and perhaps found to be good too. The
Kingdom of Heaven is truly here and one day it will be obvious; but in the
meantime we must be patient and wait.
Amen
150/23072020
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