Hidden Kingdom

Gospel according to Matthew.

Jesus put before the crowds another parable.

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field.

It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown, it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

He told them another parable.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied.

Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.

On finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind.

When it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets, but threw out the bad.

So it will be at the end of the age.

The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Have you understood all this?

They answered, Yes.

And he said to them, Therefore, every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.

The gospel of the Lord.

You may be seated.

And it's a Lutheran Episcopal campus ministry at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

This space made up my main friend group, my church community, and so much more during my college years.

And eventually was the place where my first job was.

Campus ministry is such a unique setting.

It's different from any congregation I've been a part of because every single year there's a turnover.

As students graduate, other students enter in, every year it's new.

And like clockwork, we who remained had to figure out what times and programs and types of things best served the needs of the students, new and old alike.

And it was usually hard to tell, at least at first, how successful any new thing we implemented was.

One year, for instance, our main faith formation group changed from a traditional Bible study format, reading a book, having conversation on it, to Sunday school.

We did simple crafts, had simple stories, and even kid-themed meals.

At first I was skeptical that something like this would work, that it would be helpful for our college students and impactful, but there was a lot of passion.

So as the intern, I did everything I could to make it happen.

I was out there buying chicken nuggets and fish sticks and construction paper and markers, whatever the student leaders directed.

And at the time, I didn't think it would work, but I was surprised to find that it made just as much, if not more, impact than the formal Bible study and allowed for new ways to connect faith to daily life.

All through a new way and format of telling our old honored stories and some crafts along the way.

This is the kind of unexpected and hidden impact that our gospel today talks about through a laundry list of parables about the kingdom of heaven, all with images of mustard seeds and yeast, of buried treasures and pearls and fish.

And each one of these uses a very simple, everyday symbol that different people would understand intimately, all to describe what's hidden, unexpected, and mysterious about God.

Jesus says in a verse not included in today's section, I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.

And that's just what he does as he reveals all the different hidden layers of God to different people, from the women who would be baking bread for their families on a regular basis, to laborers in the field and the sea, to managers of money and property, he told a message that a lot of people could hear.

But it's also important to pay attention to the symbols that Jesus chose to use.

Just because of how small and simple they are.

And this is important because his listeners would not be expecting something small and simple from any kingdom, let alone the promised kingdom of God they've been waiting for.

These kingdoms of their time and ours today do not act in hidden places.

They act with force, with calculation, with spectacle, all to showcase their power.

So Jesus is being crystal clear about the kind of kingdom that's coming.

And it's not like the one they thought it would be.

The Jewish people that Matthew was writing to were hoping for a Messiah that would appear with grandeur, that would save them from the Roman Empire that was oppressing them, acting with a sweeping stroke to reunite the Jewish people, not in a humble way, like a small seed that grows into a large bush practically overnight, or treasure that's buried.

In particular, Jewish people wouldn't expect the kingdom of God to be compared to yeast, because it was often a symbol of corruption in the day, and is something that would have to be entirely cleansed from a household before the celebration of Passover could take place.

What are we supposed to make of this text today, especially with that sudden shift from these easy parables to the last one with the separation of good and bad fish?

How could that fit into beautiful images of God being present hidden in our midst through the everyday and ordinary?

The challenge we face is that the good and bad mingle together in our world everywhere.

Just like how the fish are caught up together in the net and swim in the same waters, the good and bad are together, two sides of the same coin.

And the lines are not neatly drawn between the good and the bad anywhere we look, even ourselves.

We all have good and bad mixed together.

We are simultaneously sinner and saint all at once.

And this last parable reminds us that something hidden about God is how we sort all that out.

How the gray areas of our lives are made new.

So while it is easy to be anxious about what this could mean, our New Testament reading from Romans points to how the hard to see and accept nature of God sorts out the good and the bad.

No one in this room or anywhere else.

As Paul writes, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

No one is separate from God's love.

Bad things happen in our world.

That's undeniable.

And we each are complex people with good moments, and those what we are less than proud of.

As people of faith, we cannot avoid that.

But we also cannot avoid that we are unconditionally and irrevocably loved by God.

Lutherans especially believe deeply in God's grace, and that it is not up to us to make a judgment on the salvation of ourselves or other people.

Only God does that.

But no height, no earthly power, and nothing in this world can separate us from God's arms that are reaching out in love to all of us at all times.

The complexity of our lives is old news.

We have so many stories of all the times we've messed up and needed help from God to pick up the pieces of our chaos to move on.

And initially, having judgment out of our control, even with a loving God as the judge, sounds scary.

But trusting that God is love, is always loving, and is always bringing the treasures new and old together and breathing new life into us helps.

Something is about to bloom.

It's on the cusp of happening.

In every single person out there, a tiny seed is about to overnight grow into a huge bush.

A grain of yeast is working in a mountain of flower to become dough.

God is at work in the depths of our hearts, minds, and souls, and all of us are named and claimed and loved by God.

You are never, ever beyond that love.

And God is making something new in you.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.