Proper 12A/OT17

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 

Initial Thoughts

  • Take them one at a time, focus on one, or look at grouping.

  • Grouping:

    • Mustard Seed and Yeast - Addressed to the crowd.  Stresses God’s action. Kingdom of Heaven doesn’t work the way we expect it to.

    • Treasure in the field, pearl of great value -  Addressed to disciples. Stresses human response.  The Kingdom of Heaven is found in ordinary places, and is worth our whole life.

    • Fish in the net - Kingdom of Heaven is something we can miss, but it is not our decision to decide who is in and who is out.  Cast the net for all the fish.

Bible Study

  • Mustard seed in a field.

    • God’s work is barely perceptible at times, and yet produces enormous results.

    • Black mustard is most likely what is being referred to here - it was both a crop and a weed

      • Crop- used as a spice and for medicinal use

        • Probably not because of the specificity- took “a” seed and planted it in the field - why would a farmer plant just 1 seed?

      • Weed- easily grew out of control dominating other plants and driving them out

        • Planting a weed in a field is not normal behavior - in fact, it was the behavior of the evil one in the previous parable.

        • A huge mustard plant wouldn’t necessarily be known as a good symbol of success, prosperity and fruitfulness.  

        • Most farmers are not interested in having a big shrub that draws birds in the middle of the field.

    • Mustard Seed

      • Paradoxes:

      • The power and mystery of God

      • Those that seem unwelcome will flourish and attract other “unwelcome Guests”

      • The power of God is such that a tiny weed seed can be made into a great tree that provides for others

      • This parable “speaks of a kingdom which, for all its miraculous extension, remains lowly. Mustard is an annual plant; its perpetuation depends on renewed sowing, and its perennial promise depends on the life of the seed. It is an image which corresponds closely to the picture of the Kingdom of God in Mark: a mystery whose realization will come as a surprise; a reality whose weakness is its power.” (Lamar Williamson, Interpretation: Mark, p. 99)

    • Birds of heaven

      • Could refer to the eschatological kingdom described in Daniel 4:21

      • Could refer to Gentiles like Ezekiel 17:23 and 31:6

  • Yeast in flour.

    • Mixing yeast into flour would render the flour useless.  It would have be thrown away at Sabbath.  

    • Yeast, like the mustard seed, is something small that can yield an enormous result. A little bit of yeast can cause a a lot of flour to rise

    • Three measures of flour is enough to make bread to feed 100 people - see Genesis 18:6, Abraham tell Sarah to prepare 3 measures of flour - a sign of abundant generosity.

    • Leaven is even more subversive than yeast.  “Leaven is a rotting, molding lump of bread. It usually is a negative symbol of corruption. (Matthew 16:6; 1 Corinthians 5:8) It is a "woman" who takes this leaven and "hides" (not "mixes" -- cf. below) it in the flour. Given the cultural perspectives of Jesus' day, all these details make it sound like something potentially sinister and furtive is going on.” (Mark Vitalis, Working Preacher)

      • Common English Bible translates “mixes” has “hid”

    • “God’s reign works over time. In a similar way, it attacks the status quo. In doing transformative work, it shows that conventional life under imperial rule is unacceptable. God’s ways are not human ways. God’s empire is not the same as oppressive political, socioeconomic, and religious control. So Jesus heals the sick, casts out demons, eats with tax collectors, and sinners, urges mercy, promotes access to shared resources, and constitutes an alternative household. This is corrupting work in relation to the empire's status quo because it replaces an unjust hierarchical system which furthers the interests of the elite at the expense of the rest. But if a person is well adjusted in a sick society, corrupting is the only path to wholeness. In such a context, to be corrupted is to be transformed, saved, in encountering God’s empire, in anticipation of its eventual completion in establishing God’s life-giving reign of all things.” (Warren Carter, Matthew and the Margins, 291)

  • Seed and Yeast- description so the Kingdom of God

    • “neither parable is intended to encourage the church to regard itself as gradually growing and becoming more powerful within the world, or as “leavening” the world. Both proclaim that God’s action in the world, while almost imperceptible (the mustard seed was proverbial as the smallest thing that an eye could see) or hidden (as leaven in dough), is nonetheless real and will in God’s own time come to full fruition.” Douglas Hare, Interpretation: Matthew.

    • “Something different from what you expect will flourish into God’s kingdom.” Michael Joseph Brown, “Matthew”, True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary

  • Treasure in a field.

    • “The kingdom of God within us is a treasure indeed, but a treasure hid from the world, and from the most wise and prudent in it. He that finds this treasure, (perhaps when he thought it far from him,) hides it deep in his heart, and gives up all other happiness for it." From John Wesley’s notes.

      • This is a note of prevenient grace, the grace that precedes any action, understanding, or initiative on our part.  There is within every human heart a treasure that God has placed.  

    • “Finding the treasure disrupts normal daily life and promises a different way of life. The treasure is so valuable that it is worth doing new, joyful, risky, and costly things to possess it… He sells all that he has and buys that field. This is a risky act which threatens his life, but it worth losing even his life. The empire requires setting aside all other priorities in wholehearted commitment. Possessions must not hinder one from encountering God’s empire.” (Carter, p. 395)

  • Pearl of great value.

    • Merchants are generally treated with negative connotations in the Hebrew Bible.

    • Tyre’s kingdom is condemned for being built by merchants in Isaiah 2#:8 and Ezekiel 37 (according to Carter).

    • The merchant’s act of searching could be seen as repentance or searching for God, or searching for Christ’s way.

    • Sold all he had to buy one pearl of great value.

    • It is hard to imagine how this is a wise business decision.

    • Kingdom of God takes full devotion.  There is no halfway.

  • Net thrown into the sea.

    • Fishing is a Roman-regulated activity, and can be seen as a symbol of God’s resistance to imperial power (Carter, 296)

    • There is a word of judgment with the Kingdom of God that cannot be ignored.

    • Similar theme to the parable of the weeds and the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30, which was the gospel text for Pentecost +6A)

    • We are not the fishermen.

      • It is not our job to be dividing the fish.

    • All the fish are caught

  • Treasure, Pearl, and Fish - the human response to the inbreaking kingdom

Thoughts and Questions

  • The Kingdom of God is:

    • Unexpected, unseen, perhaps subversive.

      • “God is at work, even though human eyes may fail to perceive what is happening.” (Douglas Hare, Interpretation: Matthew, p. 157)

      • “God’s realm of justice and peace and freedom in this world is something unexpected. It works contrary to our expectations. The eventual success of God’s kingdom at transforming this world into a place of justice and peace and freedom would have been about as unexpected to the people who originally heard this parable.” (Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer)

      • The Kingdom of Heaven disrupts.  It afflicts the comfortable, rattles cages, and turns over tables.  The Kingdom of Heaven is not about business as usual, but is about a new economy of God’s justice that doesn’t make sense to the way of the world.

    • At hand.

      • Found in ordinary places, by people that are earnestly searching for it.

      • Always present, even if we are unaware.

    • Worth our whole lives

      • Just as Jesus gave his life for the Kingdom, so too should we

Genesis 29:15-28

Initial Thoughts

  • Traditional Marriage at its best…

    • Esau married his half cousin

    • Jacob marries his cousins

Bible Study

  • Role reversal- this time Jacob is tricked- not the trickster

    • First born are married first- Jacob is literally tricked by the same generational tradition

    • Empathy? Does Jacob finally see the consequences of his trickery?

    • “The Midrash Bereishit Rabba vividly represents the correspondence between the two episodes: ‘And all night he cried out to her, “Rachel!” and she answered him. In the morning… he said to her ‘Why did you deceive me? Daughter of a deceiver? Didn’t I call out Rachel in the night, and you answered me!’ She said: ‘There is never a bad barber who doesn’t have disciples. Isn’t this how your father cried out “Esau,” and you answered him?’” (Robert Alter, Hebrew Bible: The Five Books of Moses, p. 105)

  • Jacob away from home

    • Yahwist writer (J)- Jacob is fleeing Esau (Gen 27:41-45)

    • Priestly writer (P)- Jacob is following Isaac’s commands (Gen 28:5)

  • Women

    • Women are viewed only as property- whom Rachel and Leah loves is unimportant to the author, Laban and Jacob are the subjects and actors, Leah and Rachel are seen only as property.

    • Slave or servant? “I choose the translation ‘slave’ rather than servant… to emphasize that these persons were bought and sold, used for sex, impregnated, and completely subjugated to the power of those called their mistresses and masters. ‘Servitude’ suggests employment, which is not the case for slaves in the biblical corpus.” (Wilda Gafney, Womanist Midrash, p. 58)

    • Rachel and Leah are Jacob’s “wages”

    • God working on behalf of women (Amy Howe, Feasting on the Word)

      • Hagar - Cast out in the desert - is blessed and line continued in Ishmael and then Esau

      • Sarah - Barren - blessed with a son

      • Leah - unloved. is married with standing and children

      • Rachel - Barren - blessed with 2 sons and is loved

  • Rachel, from Womanist Midrash, by Wilda Gafney (pages 54-62).

    • “Rachel is busy shepherding her father’s sheep when Jacob encounters her. This introduction is striking for many reasons. Shepherding in the Bible is a powerful and dominant metaphor for leading the people of Israel… Yet most readers/hearers whom I have asked cannot identify any women shepherds in the Scriptures… I note with curiosity that the NRSV translation of ro’ah hiw’ in Genesis 29:9 reduces Rachel to merely ‘keeping’ sheep, without naming her as a shepherd.” (p. 54-55)

    • “How does the deception go forward? Is Rachel in on it? Is she waiting to be brought to her new mate? Does she not get suspicious as time passes? Does she not notice her sister is nowhere to be found? Do none of the servants tell her what is going on? It seems incredible that Rachel does not know what was going on around her. Even when the deception becomes known, Rachel says nothing in the text. The spaces in this story are fertile ground for midrash.(p. 56)

      • Rachel and Leah did not want to get married.

      • Jacob wanted Rachel, but she did not want him

      • Leah fell in love with Jacob, so the sisters conspired to trick Jacob.

      • He is not pleased, and the more Rachel rejects him, the more he rejects Leah

      • Leah and Rachel never reconcile, and act in hurtful ways toward one another.

    • “Rachel’s story (like that of her aunt and mother-in-law Rebekah) claims a great volume of text in comparison with the stories of other individual women in the canon. She is anodized as the beloved of Israel. Her love is not considered. Rachel has difficult relationships with her father, sister, and husband. Rachel’s mother is mysteriously missing from her story, raising unanswered questions. Where was her mother? Did her absence contribute to these difficult relationships? There is someone else with whom Rachel is in some sort of relationship. God is involved in Rachel’s life in the most intimate way, granting her the desire of her heart, even though she does not turn to God for help and may not have subscribed to the worship of this God as she worshiped the gods of her ancestors…. Willingly or unwillingly, Rachel gives up her life for her child, begetting another generation of motherless children.” (p. 62)

  • Jacob loved Rachel

    • Seven years- well beyond what would be expected for marriage

    • One of the few mentions of romantic love

  • This passage cannot be separated from last week: Jacob’s Stairway Dream (Gen 28:15) “Know that I am with you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you [many descendants, nations, etc]” (Greg Garrett, Feasting on the Word)

    • Jacob’s series of unfortunate events:

      • Fleeing for his life

      • Tricked by his uncle

      • Works as a servant for 14 years

      • Wife he loves will not conceive for a long time

      • When she does, she will die in childbirth (second child)

      • Uncle continues to treat him badly until he leaves

    • God’s presence in the midst

      • Jacob’s life is spared

      • Jacob flourished in the 14 years under Laban becoming wealthy and respected

      • He has many children from Leah, Zilpah and Bilhah as well as 2 sons by Rachel

      • Jacob’s life is spared again

    • God’s presence moves in the midst of human weakness, sinfulness and failure working toward good- it does not prevent these things.

      • “We may want and even expect God's justice to be big and dramatic, but these stories show that the reality of God's intercession often is mundane, found in unexpected places. These stories give us eyes to see where the Divine can be sought and where we participate in that sweet union.” (Amy Howe, Feasting on the Word)

Thoughts and Questions

  • How do we highlight God’s presence in the midst of suffering without trivializing, justifying or sanctifying the suffering itself?

    • Overall, we seem to do this badly- looking for platitudes to explain away the pain instead of acknowledging the pain and suffering while affirming God’s presence in the midst.

    • Ritual (and tradition?) does this very well- it communicated more effectively than words. How do we reclaim more rituals that acknowledge suffering and God’s grace?

Romans 8:26-39

Initial Thoughts

  • Primary funeral text- sighs too deep for human words

  • One of those texts a lot of people “know”

Bible Study

  • Predestination

    • This text forms the biblical foundation for predestination- especially vs. 29-30: We know this because God knew them in advance, and he decided in advance that they would be conformed to the image of his Son. That way his Son would be the first of many brothers and sisters. Those who God decided in advance would be conformed to his Son, he also called. Those whom he called, he also made righteous. Those whom he made righteous, he also glorified.

    • Attempt to understand why if we are justified by faith we still suffer

    • Augustine - we suffer because we do not have present salvation, rather we will receive salvation at a later time.

      • We intentionally do not know our state of salvation to keep us faithful and keep us from being prideful.

      • Because salvation is something we are kept hoping for - we must suffer in order to prevent our knowledge of suffering

      • The Christian life therefore is a delicate balance between faith and doubt

      • Calvin takes this a step further by united an inward call with an assurance of salvation. “The reality of a present moment of faith is certainty of my predestined, eternal salvation.” Steven Paulson

  • Paul is advocating the opposite - not an internal dwelling on predestination and the unknown mind of God, but rather reliance on the Spirit of God in suffering

    • Christians suffer and do not know how to pray- we lose our connection with God

    • The Spirit gives us the words to pray and lifts our laments to God

    • “What is needed for faith to persevere [through suffering] is someone outside you, your own personal groaner, who gives the lament of your heart to the One who made the promise, not to the one who trusts it.” Paulson

    • We are predestined for God’s love, even in the midst of suffering

    • Suffering does not pull us from God, but rather should pull us toward God - deeper in relationship with God

      • Otis Moss III - Reclaiming the Blues in our Faith, “If you want to have a real relationship with someone, you need to be willing to share all your emotions: anger, joy, sorrow, despair - to have an argument”

      • Luke Powery- Reclaiming Lament

  • Good News:

    • What will separate us from God? Nothing

    • But we are being killed - nothing

    • But we are being persecuted - nothing

    • But we are suffering - nothing

    • Nothing separates us from God

  • Stan Mitchell talking about the problem with traditional evangelicalism: we made a prescription (substitutionary atonement) for a diagnosis (original sin) which was a misdiagnosis. Genesis is not a story about divine separation but about divine union! Nothing can separate us!

  • V. 36 is from Psalm 44:22- crying out - lament and anger toward God

Thoughts and Questions

  • How can we reclaim and proclaim the good news that nothing can separate us from God? So many need to hear this message: those who have been marginalized and many of us who marginalize ourselves.

    • How often do we look for reason why God has abandoned or rejected us?

    • Linda Flynn - Where did I experience God today? Instead of why has God left me - where is God around me? Where did I experience something Good, True and Beautiful today?

  • Are we giving ourselves and others permission to be angry with God? Are we giving voice to that? How many who are living in fear of deportation, losing healthcare, losing their jobs, fear of law enforcement, fear of neighborhood violence are feeling like they are being slaughtered like sheep and God is asleep at the switch? (Psalm 44) C

    • Can we give voice to the anger and reassure of God’s presence? Yes!

  • Good opportunity to explore the many things that threaten to separate us from God:

    • trouble, distress, harassment, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, death, life, angels, rulers, present things, future things, powers, height, depth

    • Jim Wallis - the three major things that keep from God that Christians have always responded to: Money(poverty/simplicity) - Sex(chastity/covenental) - Power(obediance/congregational)

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING AND GET IN TOUCH:

Thanks to our Psalms correspondent, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan (psalmimmersion.com,@pomopsalmist). Thank you to Scott Fletcher for our voice bumpers, Dick Dale and the Del Tones for our Theme music (“Misirlou”), Nicolai Heidlas (“Sunday Morning”,"Real Ride"and“Summertime”) and Paul and Storm for our closing music (“Oh No”).

ProperAEric FistlerGenesis, Matthew, Romans2 Comments