A Sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie
I Kings 3:5-12
Psalm 119:121-136
Romans 8:26-343
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-49a
Johnny used to hang out at the local corner market. The owner didn't know what little Johnny's problem was, but the other boys would constantly tease him. They would always comment that he was two bricks shy of a load, or two pickles short of a barrel. To prove it, sometimes they would offer Johnny his choice between a nickel and a dime and Johnny would always take the nickel -- they were just certain it was because the nickel was bigger.
One day after Johnny grabbed the nickel, the store owner took him aside and said, "Johnny, those boys are making fun of you. They think you don't know the dime is worth more than the nickel. Are you grabbing the nickel because it is bigger, or what?"
Slowly, Johnny turned toward the store owner, a big grin appeared on his face, and he said, "Well, if I took the dime, they'd stop doing it, and so far I've saved $20!"
The kingdom of heaven is like taking the nickel.
Something tiny and seemingly unimportant becomes vital. The tiny mustard seed -- unwanted because it becomes a bothersome weed – that seed becomes a life-giving shelter. A little yeast -- again something unwanted that can spoil one's kosher unleavened bread – that little bit works wonders on a whole bushel of flour.
The kingdom turns our values upside down. Something others don't value becomes priceless. Our weaknesses, things we don't do well, may become powerful.
"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness;How do you pray? When you are alone with God, what do you say? What do you do? Often as not, I'm left feeling so inadequate. My prayer seems hardly to reach even mustard-seed status.
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words."
How do you pray?
How do you pray? When Jesus friends said to him "Teach us to pray." We were given "The Lord's Prayer" – a model to follow in our own prayer. And yet there are times when even that isn't enough. When love fails, when a child dies, when we, or those we love, are in great pain, when our hopes and dreams are shattered for whatever reason ... where are the words for that? Even the powerful angry words of the psalms may not serve. Sometimes we are beyond shouting and beyond tears. We are empty. It feels as if there isn't even a mustard seed of prayer.
Only an empty aching groan, like the deep breathing of a woman in labor.... that's what is described in our second lesson. That's the Spirit at work in us. That's where the kingdom begins – in that place of sighing too deep for words.
The Spirit at work in us is that little bit of yeast. Perhaps all we have is the desire to pray. That desire, even when we feel we cannot pray, is yeast enough. It brings us into communion with God. It is our ticket home to the kingdom. It allows us to begin the journey of growth in prayer and faith. It eventually can teach us to rejoice in loving God and neighbor.
The unformed groaning prayer, like the lowly nickel, can be the pearl of great price that has gone unrecognized and unvalued. It can be the hidden treasure that causes joy enough to buy the whole field. The wordless desire for prayer brings us into communion with God as surely as the Holy Eucharist.
God doesn't ask us to buy our way into the kingdom. God doesn't require a pearl of great price or a shiny new dime. The kingdom of heaven is not like the local corner market. We aren't required to have a list of good works, loving behavior, and hours spent in prayer. God sees the tiny seed, the prayer too deep for words, and the yeast of God's own image in us.
God sees the treasure in us and in sheer joy God has bought the whole deal – all that we are: the good & the bad, the beautiful & the ugly. God's net drags every part us into the kingdom: the good and the bad parts are all hauled ashore for sorting and forgiving and loving. The yeast of God's love in us changes everything – God's love can make even the rotten hurtful parts growthful and life giving.
All things do work together for good for those who love God. That's what the kingdom is like. The miserable parts of our lives are groaned and yeasted into goodness.
The kingdom is like something small that makes everything worthwhile. In God's kingdom, little things make big things happen: Buy the whole field, Leaven the whole bushel, Haul in good and bad fish alike.
One nickel saved. One prayer whispered. Something small and insignificant changes everything. One Galilean peasant dies on a cross and saves the world. The bread is broken, the prayer is sighed, and we are loved forever. The kingdom is like that.