Sermon preached by Fr. Tom at St. Thomas, Plymouth
July 27, 2014: Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 29:15-28, Psalm 128, Romans 8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an acceptable offering in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
This past week, St. Thomas was transformed into an Israeli camp, and Moses had the rectory as his tent. The fenced area between the rectory and the parish hall was a pen for various animals.
We had 90 children registered for Vacation Bible School. There were 40 to 50 teens and adults who made it all work. I have to say it was a little difficult to keep track of it all. We have mostly returned things to what you expect to see on a Sunday morning, but there are still signs of what was going on last week. I will encourage you to take a look at the pictures that are up and ask the children about how much they learned.
The vacation Bible School was a blessing for us in many ways. We got to share God’s Word with children from all over town. We got to work with our brothers and sisters from other churches. We had opportunities for ministry, and I think many of the volunteers really enjoyed the chance to exercise their gifts. I preached a few Sundays ago about gifts, and this Vacation Bible School was evidence of many of them. It all worked very well.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. “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.” Three measures of flour is a lot of flour. We read this and think it is three cups, but it is really about eighty pounds of flour. So we are talking 16 five pound bags. This is more or less 150 cups of flour. So you add six gallons or so of water and some yeast, oil and salt.
I used to make a lot of bread. There was something satisfying for me in the whole process, and I would probably work out some issues in all that pounding down and kneading. Breadmaking has changed for people in general, and explaining this process to a youth group would be like explaining how vinyl records work to the same bunch.
Breadmaking is easier and less satisfying these days. If I wanted to make some bread today, I would measure oil water salt and flour into the breadmaker and turn it on. In three or four hours I have an oddly shaped loaf. For my children, this is largely a “whatever” experience. We have lost the muscular quality, and it is a fairly passive experience.
I would like for you to think of that giant mass of dough made with the three measures of flour. I described the old school breadmaking experience as muscular, but we have a woman in this parable who is a cross between Julia Child and Hulk Hogan. This dough ball is over 100 pounds.
There is a tendency to think of megachurches and massive cathedrals as the places where God’s work is being done efficiently and effectively. This is America and I think we are programmed to think that bigger is better. Bigger is not always better in the Kingdom of God. St. Thomas is more on the small but mighty end of things.
This small but mighty theme has a lot of Scriptural support. Just as a few quick examples, Mary was not a major player in Israel when Jesus was born. Jesus was delivered in a stable and did not arrive in a flaming chariot with thunder and lightning and a pillar of fire. The disciples were not the finest scholars and teachers of the day. You can think of a few examples yourselves.
Christianity itself did not look too promising at first. Then the Roman Empire set out to destroy it. It would seem like the odds were poor. Now we read about the Roman Empire in history book and look at pictures of ruins. The church has grown and it still with us.
Let’s think about that dough again. It is more than the sum of it’s parts. The yeast is in the dough, but it is invisible. It has been worked into the giant blob, and it is starting to have its effect. A mystery is bubbling away hidden from sight. More is happening than meets the eye.
As this process continues, finally we can’t help but notice. The blob is growing. The hidden is becoming revealed. Jesus presents this to us as the way the kingdom of heaven works. It is like the strange process that turns flour into dough which becomes abundant bread.
We get a glimpse of the kingdom, and I want us to think about the core of this parable. Two things are asked of us: we must be patient, and we must exercise discernment.
First the patience – yeast takes a while to work, and its working is mysterious. You can speed up the rising a little, but mostly it just takes time. So we have to be patient as the dough rises and comes to life.
This dough is is our church and our community. There are opportunities for ministry. Work is being done even although sometimes we don’t see it taking place. The baker woman is at work with our life, and the people around us.
We need to be patient and we also need to exercise discernment if a lump of dough is ever to be bread for the world. Our lives are messy sometimes. They are hard to understand. There is promise, but we don’t always see it. Yeast permeates the entire lump, and the kingdom is all around us. One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is to have eyes to see the work taking place, but some of us just need to have faith. Jesus is doing His work in our hearts.
Our parish mission is ‘To share the Wisdom of God in all its rich variety, through our common life in the Body of Christ. (Ephesians 3:10), so that the place where we live may be renewed and transfigured in God.’ This transformation is the way the Kingdom works.
If we look around us and within us, if we discern, we can recognize the presence of the kingdom. Instead of yeast we have the other things that help us grow. We have prayer and the practice of faith. Exercising our gifts is another way. There was a lot of the Kingdom to discern this last week here at St. Thomas.
Look at your life in the light of grace. What do you contribute to the doughball? What is it that builds you up and makes you more of the person Jesus wants you to be?
Once we have taken a hard look at ourselves, we need to look around us too. That blob of dough is going to make a bunch of bread. It is abundant. It is all around us. We need to have eyes for it. Look for the evidence of God’s hand at work and you will be blessed.
There’s one caution to keep in mind. The kingdom does not come with brass bands. It is not the subject of headline news and public-relations efforts. We are talking here about yeast working invisibly in the dough. It usually does its work quietly without drawing much attention.
It takes faith to believe that bread will rise, and it takes faith to see the kingdom present in the everyday and the ordinary. We must exercise patience and discernment wherever God places us. If we look around and see meaningless and ugly, we need to look again. Maybe we need to pray that God will open our eyes. The Kingdom is at work.
My takeaways are these.
We will leave here and this week we will encounter places and people and circumstances. I want us to look there for the kingdom. It will not be distant, and it will probably not be obvious. It may not be very exciting. It is more likely to be quiet and hidden, but it will be there.
When we find evidence of the kingdom, I want us to give thanks. We are part of creation and this growth is taking part in us as well. It is a lot to be grateful for.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen