July 27, 2008
The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)
Genesis 29:15-28; Psalm 105:1-11,45b; Romans 8:26-39;
Matthew 13:31-33,44-52
So, we continue this week with the story of the upright citizen of family value fame, Jacob. He has already tricked his brother out of his birthright and deceived his father into giving him the blessing that belonged to his brother – all under the adoring eye of his mother who favored one son over another. Then, in cowardice, because he feared his brother’s wrath, he fled to hunt out a wife from his uncle’s household. He fell head over heels for Rachel, and made a deal with her father to work for seven years and then take her as his wife. But trickery must have run in the family because Laban substituted the older sister for the woman Jacob loved. And he had to work another seven years to finally get the prize of his beloved.
This leaves him with two concurrent wives, one a favorite, the younger, prettier one, of course.
The World Wide Anglican Communion (WWAC) is in an uproar over homosexuality – at least part of it is. But did you know that the practice of multiple wives is still common in much of the Anglican world? In fact, the countries most up in arms about homosexuality are the ones who condone or at least look the other way at the practice of multiple wives. Indeed, the Mother’s Union of Africa (made up of women who work hand in hand with mission and health organizations from all over the world, and in particular from the United States, to help children and others with Aids and to provide education for the children of Africa) is an example of the tacit approval of the tradition of multiple wives by some. The Mother’s Union members pride themselves that the only wives who can be members of the
For me the power in this story of Jacob and Laban, Rachel and Leah, is to do as we did last week: look at this part of the story of Jacob and Leah and Rachel in the context of the gospel which is a series of wonderful stories or parables or truths about God’s viewpoint on things, that is, Jesus’ version of God’s viewpoint, stories that Jesus told us so that we might recognize God when we see God’s hand at work in the world about us. He told us these stories not so that we can find the exact right answer etched in eternal stone to allow us to condemn any who do not adhere to such a way, but rather so that we would think about what the kingdom of God is like and how we, in our still pitifully human state, might act and truly value as members of that kingdom. And there are some really wonderful images that Jesus gives us with these sayings for us to understand God’s values. To see Leah and Rachel in the context of the pearl of great price that was found, or to look at Jacob’s being willing to give up fourteen years of his life to have the woman he loved, casts a new light on this story – always the intention of Jesus when he told parables, to cast new light on old stories. So, Jacob, a coward, cheat, and thief, had the capability of loving someone so passionately that he gave up fourteen years of his life to claim her as his wife. That is a pearl of great price! The story doesn’t end there, of course, and how that worked between Leah and Rachel and Jacob is fodder for future sermons. But for this one moment we see another side of Jacob and know why it is God loved him so much, and how he was able to reflect that love in his passion for Rachel. Perhaps the biblical value of marriage is seen in passion and sacrifice for another. Jacob certainly displays that in this reading; he knew what it was to give everything for the pearl of great price.
But this morning I want us to think also of the other two gospel parables we heard, and how they cast light on us, here in this parish today. They have something I think we as a congregation need to think about. They are the ones that have to do with a lot coming from a little: the stories of the mustard seed and the yeast as leaven. A little mustard seed grows to be a bush big enough to house birds, and the yeast mixed into flour causes the dough to rise and become light and delicious. A bit of yeast has far more impact than its size or volume would indicate, and a tiny, tiny seed is capable of producing a great plant.
If we look at the world around us today we often see things in terms of what we don’t have or how much more everything is costing. I know I am a bit alarmed about the price of gas and how much the costs of things in caring for my home have increased, electricity, gas, condo fees, etc. The church is, of course, facing those same kinds of concerns and rising costs, and the vestry spent an extra meeting this month talking about how to deal with fewer resources and more expenses, really through no fault of our own.
I would imagine that when people looked at a mustard seed they would have a hard time imagining a large treelike bush big enough to house birds. And I think all of us when times get tough, which admittedly they are, tend to see only the mustard seed and not the potential of the bush. I think we see the flour flat and unleavened. And if we think about how to grow it at all, we imagine some outside force, a miracle, a person, who will come along and be the germinated seed or the self-rising yeast.
We are all good at dreaming dreams and scheming schemes, but the truth is, if Jesus is to be believed, that we who belong to God’s kingdom are already the germinated mustard seed and the self-rising flour. We have within us, within our parish community, what is needed to do the work God has given us to do. I know it seems like I am speaking magic or talking about winning lotteries or making something out of nothing, but the thing is that Jesus did that all the time. He showed things in a new and different light, and when seen differently, either needs changed or abundance was measured differently.
I would like to suggest that we need to see the abundance that we already have, the talent and resources and diversity and knowledge and passion we have for each other, for this community, and for Christ. And let that be our mustard seed and yeast. Let us trust that we can instead of measuring what we can’t do or don’t have.
We have a fantastic program planned for fall, especially for our children. I am delighted that Barbara Claire Kean will be leading them and us as we go forward. I am tickled pink with the work of the 50th anniversary committee and what they will help us celebrate, with the film that the stewardship committee is planning to do in light of that 50th anniversary, with a new class that will begin this fall on forgiveness, and with so many and so much more.
It is true things are not what they used to be, but then if they were, we would only be a few mustard seeds and a lump of yeast. We can never go back, but we can celebrate what was and move forward, allowing the seeds within us to germinate to provide for the next tree and the yeast to provide leaven for the rising bread of life.
We all have the passion of Jacob about something. We all contain the mustard seed and the yeast within because we are citizens of the
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd