The Parable Of the First Lost Tooth

Sermon-6 Pentecost-Proper 12-July 24, 2011
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“My God of peace, of joy and delight,
I offer you all my tears, all my ignorance.
My God of peace, of joy and delight,
I offer you all my fears and fractured promises.
You, my God, know all this, all this;
How poor I am, how small I am;
You, my God, know all this, all this.
Yet what I have, my God, I give to you.”
[Paul Verlaine 1844-1896]
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
He put before them 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 yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; 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 been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."
Our youngest granddaughter, Danielle lost her first tooth (it would be a nice thing if you asked her to show you). I was telling this to my mother and she told me the story of my losing my first tooth. When my tooth was ready to come out it wasn’t quite there, and it was hanging on by a thread. But I wouldn’t let anyone near it, or pull it (afraid it would hurt, I suppose). My mother said it was pretty disgusting kind of hanging out of my mouth. Everyone was telling her just to reach up and grab it, but she wouldn’t. She
decided to talk to me about it instead. So she asked if she could just touch the tooth, just to show me that it wouldn’t hurt. Then, she asked me to touch it. She kept talking to me, walking me through each step, until eventually I let her pull it out. My aunt was in the next room listening to all this, and later told my mom that she couldn’t get over and careful and patient my mother was with me-and how deeply I trusted her.
Jesus told stories, in today’s case, parables, because they stuck with people longer. We remember a story so much more than we ever recall any other kind of teaching. In today’s gospel, Jesus tells 5 short stories, 5 parables about what life is like with God, in God’s kingdom. Don’t be misled. Just because they’re short and simple, doesn’t mean that they’re easy, nor understandable at first blush.
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Many of you know this, a mustard plant is a weed. It’s not the smallest seed, and it doesn’t grow into a tree. Jesus is exaggerating to make a point. No farmer plants mustard seeds, they just grow and take over your garden, your fields-like kudzu. The people listening to this story would have expected Jesus to say that God’s kingdom would have been like the royal and stately cedar of Lebanon. Instead he uses the image of a pernicious weed to talk about what God’s world is like. This story would have surprised, maybe even shocked those hearing it. Listen carefully to each parable. In each of these stories there is a sense of mystery, of "hiddenness"-small seeds becoming huge bushes, buried treasure, yeast concealed in flour. In each of these parables there is a message of surprise and unexpectedness. We’ve heard these stories so often it’s difficult for us to hear how strange these stories were. The kingdom of God that Jesus was talking about was the extraordinary in the commonplace. But it was always unforeseen, always astonishing. The kingdom of God like a weed? These stories weren’t just surprising, they were a little offensive -insulting. Wait for it, you’ll hear it as we keep going.
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened”. Do you have any idea how much 3 measures of flour is? Its over 50 pounds! Jesus describes a woman making enough bread for over 100 people. And she mixes in to this huge mixture of dough a small piece of yeast. And this is another part of these parables-there’s not just a hiddenness in each story, there’s also an explosion, an over abundance, too. The woman doesn’t just make bread, she makes way too much bread. In each of these parables there is exaggeration, abundance, enormous quantities-the biggest bush, the most bread, the greatest treasure. God’s kingdom is overflowing, spilling over, enormous. Every parable, every one of these short stories takes something small, commonplace, everyday and then Jesus describes God’s kingdom as a cornucopia of abundance. .
A man hides a treasure in someone else’s field. And then he sells all that he has to buy that field. God’s kingdom is mysterious, and hidden; it’s abundant and explosive; and then it demands sacrifice and single-mindedness. These aren’t nice teachings about how little things can become big, or how we should look for specialness in our lives. These are radical teachings about what God’s empire is like-the extraordinary in the ordinary, the unexpected breaking through the commonplace, the incredible abundance and profusion when little was expected. And how the kingdom is revealed to those who seek it. Like Jesus. These stories are deep and layered and they’re supposed to make us think and see and wonder and realize that in God’s world things are different. Small, hidden, abundant, demanding, requiring sacrifice. This is the kingdom Jesus describes as belonging to his father-thee aren’t nice little stories-these are subversive, insubordinate, nettling little stories that would have shocked and perhaps offended those hearing them.
We just spent several days with our friends Mark and Paula. On our last night there we were talking about the funny twists and turns our lives have taken-things we didn’t see coming, didn’t expect-among other things-our friendship. We met almost 30 years ago, kind of randomly. Paula said she just assumed we would go our separate ways and never see each other again. They certainly never expected that we would be lifelong friends-or for our friendship to last. We talked about how surprising our friendship has been-and how rich. And how hard it has been to stay together over 30 years, how much work it takes to be real friends. And I thought about the parables for today-about how subversive God is-how unexpected, how the kingdom hides and explodes and overwhelms, how God is constantly overturning what I think will happen and changes my life in powerful-but what seems like ordinary ways. And how hard I have to work, how many sacrifices I have to make, if those changes are to remain.
Jesus tells 5 simple stories about how unexpected God’s kingdom is, how surprising, how profuse and abundant-and what this kingdom demands of us. The word “parable” comes from the Greek “to throw alongside,”-it’s a story that is supposed to open our eyes to a new teaching-that is deep, and powerful, and revelatory. Alyce MacKenzie says this about parables: “A rule of thumb of parable interpretation is this: identify what is strange about the parable. It is your window into the kingdom of God” . So, what do you hear when you hear afresh the story of the mustard seed? What do you learn when you think about the pearl of great price? What layers are revealed when you see in your mind the story of the yeast in the great wad of dough? That’s what Jesus was trying to get the people to understand-that the Kingdom of God was different than what they expected-abundant, surprising, commonplace-and demanding.
And so, when my mother told me the story of losing my first tooth I began to think of an incredibly patient, caring young mother and fearful little boy. And I wondered to myself, “how is this like God’s kingdom?” And “what does this teach me about God?”
Alyce Mackenzie again: “So, four strange parables, the first two about what God is doing in offering the gift of the kingdom (mustard seed, leaven), the second two, about how we are to seek and accept that gift (treasure, pearl). They are followed by an allegorical parable (13:47-50) that serves as an exclamation point to all four of them. Its message seems to be: better recognize the gift and work at accepting it…” The kingdom of God is a story that makes us realize that God is working everywhere, all around us, surprisingly, abundantly, demandingly. Where do you see God’s kingdom in your own story?