This morning’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel has a frenetic feel that is more like Mark that Matthew. This is partly because we have omitted verses 34-43 which were in last week’s Lectionary but this is not the whole story. It seems as if Jesus has so much to tell the crowds that he just needs to cram in as much as possible. You could think of God’s Kingdom like a mustard seed, like leaven, like treasure, like pearls, like a net! However it may also be that Jesus is showing how parables can be used to explain the ways of God. Earlier in chapter 13 the disciples had asked him why he spoke in parables. I didn’t find the NRSV version of this was very helpful but the Message Bible puts it a bit more clearly:

Jesus is saying that if you are ‘in the know’ you will understand what the parables are saying and that if you aren’t you won’t understand and you are condemned. Although if you are open to new ideas then these parables will help you to understand a little of how God works as He establishes His Kingdom. So it is important that we spend a little time trying to understand some of these parables!

The first of the parables refers to a mustard seed which was often used to specify that something was very small. And the mustard seed that Jesus talked about, which is different from the mustard that we grow in this country, would have grown into a big tree capable of providing nests for birds. In the Old Testament this vision of a large tree would often represent a large empire and the birds nesting would be taken to represent the nations of the empire living within its branches. Jesus no doubt also wanted them, and us, to understand that the kingdom of God on earth started small and gradually incorporates all the nations. That seed starts by planting itself in human hearts and as it grows, transforms individuals.

The next parable looks at leaven and how it works to change flour from something that becomes a water biscuit when cooked, to a lovely moist and spongy bread. For the Jews leaven was almost always associated with evil: preparation for Passover includes removing all traces of leaven from the house before the feast can start. And probably Jesus chose the analogy of God’s Kingdom being like leaven to catch peoples’ attention. The amount of flour that was mentioned would have been just the right amount for a typical family’s daily requirement of bread.

Bread of course is at the heart of the Eucharist and freshly baked bread is very special. When we baked bread for Pentecost there was something very significant about tearing the loaf apart and sharing it amongst us. And when Geoffrey went to gather up the crumbs of the consecrated bread it had all been eaten! Perhaps one can extrapolate the parable to the leaven changing the flour, and God changing us, so that people who meet us want to experience more of God. How wonderful that would be if it could be said of each one of us!

The last parable that I want to look at is that of the treasure in the field. This tale of a man who hides his treasure in a field and then buys the field sounds a bit strange to us but in first-century Palestine there were no banks where one could store one’s valuables. Instead people used to bury their most precious possessions in the earth like the man did with his one Talent. However in contrast to that story Jesus was telling the people that this man valued his treasure so much that he was willing to forego everything else to make sure that he kept that treasure. And this treasure was immeasurably precious, because in the meaning of the parable it was God Himself willing to live within His people.

In the Epistle, Paul too is talking of God and what a treasure trove he speaks of! First he reminds us that God has sent His Spirit to live within us and teach us His ways: when we cannot find the words to pray for what we need the Spirit intercedes for us, from the very depths, ‘with sighs too deep for words.’ When we do not even know what it is that we need the Spirit is there, asking and supporting us, and helping us to fulfill our potential. He reminds us that ‘all things work together for good for those who love God.’ How many of us when we look back at our lives marvel at the way the road has deviated from where we believed we were going and understand how much better the alternative route has turned out to be. Why did God want me and Roger to move to Epping when we wanted to live near mountains? I still don’t know the full answer to that question but I do know that here in Epping we have been richly blessed.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

This passage also reminds us that prayer is not about bombarding God with requests but resting in His presence and listening to Him. But it is not just about sighing, it is also about rejoicing. As St Paul writes:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?

He reminds us that God loves us so much, we can’t even begin to understand even part of that love. God loves us so much that He has adopted us so that we are one of His family. And because we are so precious in His sight he will protect us whatever transpires. Many Christians face persecution, starvation, conflict and many other problems in the earthly life. But they should never feel abandoned by their, and our, Loving Father. For as St Paul says at the end of the Epistle reading:

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love. Just think about that. That is our treasure, that is what was buried in the field, and which the man, or woman, in the reading, gave everything for. When God became incarnate in Jesus, He intended that we should begin to understand how much He loves us and how much He wants to protect us. That love is too vast for us to understand it but we can still acknowledge it, gives thanks for it and move forward in our Christian life with God at the heart of us.

And against all the trials that we will face in this life, God will be with us and make us more than conquerors just because He loves us. Not because we have done anything to deserve it but just because He loves us. How amazing is that!? Amen