30 July 2023 | Year A | 1 Kings 3:5-12; Matthew 13:31-33, 44:52
‘Have you understood all this?’ When I first read today’s Gospel passage, I was initially struck by Jesus asking this question ‘Have you understood all this?’. It seemed to me that he had thrown some quick-fire parables at them which they were expected to make sense of. It is worth noting that there is a section missing from the middle, but that is Jesus’ explanation of the Parable of the Weeds which comes earlier in the Chapter, which we would’ve had last Sunday if we weren’t keeping the Feast of Mary Magdalene. Chapter 13 of Matthew’s Gospel is the Chapter of Parables, starting with the Parable of the Sower and ending with the hidden treasure, fine pearls, and the separation of the good and the bad fish which we have just heard. But what struck me wasn’t just that Jesus asked: ‘Have you understood all this?’ but that they answered ‘Yes’ – and seemingly immediately. I’ll be honest the first time I properly read these I definitely would not have been able to answer Yes.
My first instinct would be that small, seemingly insignificant things that initially seem useless, become something bigger and better and capable of more. In fact, my first thought when preparing this sermon was to draw on something I had said in a podcast last week, about listening to God in the silences and discerning what it was I was called to be. Reinforced by my time at Lighthouse where we were exploring space, and how to Make Space for Jesus. I felt certain that I was going to stand before you and talk to you about planting small seeds and giving them space to grow, that was until I sat and a small mustard seed of a thought entered my mind, and as I thought some more something else started to grow.
In our first reading, we hear of the Lord visiting Solomon in a dream and saying, ‘Ask what I should give you’. Solomon talks of the love shown to his father David, his own vulnerabilities being ‘only a little child’ not knowing how to go out or come in and asks for wisdom to lead God’s chosen people and to discern between good and evil. Impressed that Solomon has not asked for selfish things, and instead asks for things that will be of benefit to God’s Chosen People, God grants Solomon’s request, indicating that no-one like him has come before, and no one will come after he is gone. Through this act God is keeping the promise made to all the peoples, not just that of a king. They are being encouraged to return to the God of their youth, the one that led them out of Egypt, just like this new young King Solomon had done. Solomon goes on to build the first temple in Jerusalem and is indeed the last king of a united Israel as the succession of his Son Rehoboam causes a split.
Often when a community feels under threat, from either external threats or inner fragmentation, it latches on to the core narratives that bind it together, the inherited traditions that kept the community strong throughout the years.
‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed’. Mustard seeds are unruly, they don’t need much soil or tending to, and they are unlikely to be intentionally sown by a farmer, instead being mixed up with the intended seed and growing in the gaps of the neatly furrowed fields. It may seem a bit baffling that this is the analogy that Jesus uses to describe the kingdom, I wonder how many of us think of the kingdom as something chaotic or something neat and ordered. Being a farmer’s granddaughter when I think of sowing, I immediately think of nice neatly ploughed lines with carefully planned out tramlines meaning the crop can be tended to without ruining ensuring the best yield. I certainly don’t think of haphazard planting where you have no idea where anything is going to grow, and you risk driving over the crop anytime you go into the field. I think of nice, neat rows and anything that grows outside of this ordered system is unintended and as such a weed that needs to be eradicated. But what would happen if we let it grow.
Now, does anyone here listen to The Archers? Has anyone here never heard of The Archers? Essentially, it’s a soap on Radio 4 that is all about farming, village life and all the drama that comes with it. This might surprise you as I don’t think I’m the intended demographic of The Archers or Radio 4, but I love it. I can’t remember when I started listening, but it was as an adult. I was shocked the other day to hear Henry all grown up and that his brother Jack was turning 7 – I’m sure he was only born a few months ago. So, at the very least I’ve been listening for over 7 years!!
Over the last few years, for those avid listeners, you’ll have heard Adam fretting over soil quality and the planting of the herbal leys with mob grazing and, more recently, the rewilding project. People often get rewilding confused, it’s not about planting in areas which had previously been planted and are no longer – rather it’s taking away all the controls and restraints that we place on nature and just letting it do what it wants. ‘No Mow May’ goes someway to achieving this. It’s about departing from human traditions and letting Mother Nature regain control.
This made me think about the Church, and the neat and ordered way we plant our seeds. We have a desire to define what fits and what doesn’t, and we have set formulas to determine this. We have scripture, creeds, liturgy, traditions; neat rows of carefully tended to doctrine and practice. We like boundaries and clear definitions, which means we don’t always know what to do if something unexpected occurs. Now I am not suggesting we should throw out all doctrine, scripture, and liturgy, don’t panic – I’m not completely crazy – but sometimes something unexpected comes along and the Church rejects it because it doesn’t fit within its neatly ploughed lines. Typically, this is a result of a shift in culture, a changing society. So how do we adapt to a changing society? Is it right for the Church to stay confined to its neatly ploughed lines or do we risk damaging the landscape of society.
When Adam was concerned about the soil quality at Home Farm, he made a radical decision in an attempt to improve it for future generations, much to Brian’s disgust. When Phoebe saw the destruction that was happening to the planet she started the rewilding project, in an attempt to help undo the damage humanity had caused in the hope that a better planet may be left for future generations. In both cases a radical change was made to preserve something good for those yet to come. Today the Church seems to be at a crucial crossroads, where we seem more interested in protecting ourselves than we do God’s Chosen People. Maybe, just maybe, we need to step outside of our neatly ploughed lines and look for the beauty in those unexpected seeds that just don’t quite fit. I pray, as Solomon did, that we are granted with the wisdom to lead God’s Chosen People and discern between what is good and what is evil and rather than acting for our own best interests we seek to look after those on the outside of our neatly ploughed lines.
Amen.
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