WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Good morning. 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:09.000 I went to Movie Works the other night and I saw the Odyssey. 3 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:36.000 It's a good movie, it's fun, and it is indeed a spectacle. It's got all the stuff we expect from a summer blockbuster. Big stars, great visuals, rousing soundtrack, and a couple different plots that are interwoven in a way that keep you engaged enough to sit through a three hour runtime. 4 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:44.000 It's a big epic story that most everybody knows or thinks they know, or pretends that they know. 5 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:57.000 The critic in me thinks that maybe the movie takes itself a little too seriously and doesn't let Matt Damon or the character he plays, Odysseus, play enough. 6 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:01.000 Because Odysseus was a player. 7 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:15.000 He was crafty, he was witty, a master storyteller, a hero, and sometimes a liar, which is this mix of humanity is what makes him so fascinating. 8 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:24.000 And he's a complicated person who is trying to find his way home. 9 00:01:24.000 --> 00:02:09.000 Much like the Hebrew Scriptures, the Odyssey began as an oral tradition told by poets to rapt audiences for generations, handed down, embellished over generations before it was eventually written down in the form that we have them now. And much like the Hebrew Scriptures, the Odyssey has been taught, translated, embellished, commented upon, parsed, owned, appropriated and repudiated ever since they were written down, which was a long, long time ago. And today we're still talking about them, which speaks to the truths that they both contain. 10 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:13.000 They're both foundational to what we call Western culture. 11 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:20.000 And you should see the movie, if you haven't already. It's worth the price of admission and it's worth three hours of your time. 12 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.000 At least it felt like it was worth three hours of mine. 13 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:30.000 It's really entertaining, which is the point of a summer blockbuster anyway. 14 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:38.000 And unless you never look at the Internet, you know that the Odyssey has blown it up with commentary about the merits of the movie. 15 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:44.000 And that's been almost as entertaining to watch as the movie itself was. 16 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:48.000 And I've got nothing against entertainment. 17 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:55.000 I'm glad I saw the Odyssey when I did, because it was about a week before I started working on this sermon. 18 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:08.000 Both the Odyssey and the gospel reading today were swirling around in my head. And as I tried to decide how I was going to approach this gospel reading that we heard. 19 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:12.000 Chris. 20 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:26.000 Jimmy, who is our deacon today, which we heard Jimmy read today. My name's Jimmy. I've worked here for a decade. 21 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:33.000 But anyway, the movie caused me to ask myself, what did I just see? 22 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:40.000 What kind of story was that? And the Gospel caused me to ask myself, what have I just read. 23 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.000 What kind of story is this? 24 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:49.000 Well, it's several little stories, right within a story. 25 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:52.000 Within an even bigger story. 26 00:03:52.000 --> 00:04:03.000 Jesus tells his listeners six short, somewhat cryptic parables in rapid succession, and these are embedded within Matthew's Gospel. 27 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:15.000 The story of the life of Jesus and Matthew's Gospel forms a part of the story of the faith that we followers of Jesus have come to know as the New Testament. 28 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:21.000 And there's a fourth story in which all these stories are embedded. 29 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:31.000 And that's the story of our lives here and now, which in turn are informed by the stories that make up each one of us. 30 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:42.000 Our pasts, our present existence, our hopes and fears and dreams about the future, everything that comes with being human. 31 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:51.000 Much like the Odyssey, much like this parable, our lives are layers of stories all the way down. 32 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:55.000 Every good story leaves much to the imagination. 33 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:58.000 That may be the real power of story. 34 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:08.000 It fires up something in the listener that is either unknown or perhaps known and forgotten. 35 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:17.000 Usually surprising. Any good story says more than it says, and this is what I love about Jesus parables. 36 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:54.000 They are so specific, so grounded in the real world, and yet so cosmic and so wide open, kind of like a field, or like dough rising, or like pearls, hard little jewels, round and luminous, kind of like the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus tells us is a mustard seed. It's tiny, and it contains everything necessary, given the right conditions, to grow into a tree. 37 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:57.000 A tree with a purpose. 38 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:07.000 The purpose is to provide a place where birds of the air can build their homes. 39 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:12.000 And isn't that what we all want more than anything? 40 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:15.000 A place to call home. 41 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.000 The kingdom of heaven is like yeast. 42 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:31.000 It looks dry, looks like ordinary material, maybe like the dust that we all come from and to which we shall return before the breath of the spirit animates us. 43 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:36.000 But wait, it's not just like yeast until. 44 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:48.000 Or rather, it's not only yeast until a woman mixes it with flour and water, and then, voila. 45 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:50.000 No one knows how. 46 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:57.000 Well, today we have a scientific explanation of how, but that misses the point of this mystery. 47 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:08.000 And with her loving care, fire and an oven and baking for just the right length of time, it becomes bread. 48 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:20.000 The ordinary, extraordinary bread of life, to nourish her family, her friends, a hungry stranger. 49 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:56.000 But wait. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone, let's say you and me, have found and hidden there in a field that certainly wasn't ours to begin with, maybe not even for sale. A field that we are willing to give up every material thing that we have worked so hard for to accumulate, just so that we can lay claim to the field and the treasure that is already ours. 50 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:02.000 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant. Again, let's say, like you and me. 51 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:03.000 Merchants. 52 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:06.000 What are we in search of? 53 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:08.000 Pearls. 54 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:27.000 Pearls of wisdom, pearls of beauty, pearls of meaning. In a world that seems to have lost all meaning, friends, if you found one, would you sell all that you have, all that you hold dear, to obtain it? 55 00:08:27.000 --> 00:09:03.000 But wait, there's more. Because the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, into the deep, where the fish live, those mysterious, ordinary, extraordinary little beings that God created. On the fifth day, the same day that those birds of the air were created and now live in a mustard tree, these creatures from the deep are caught in the net of the kingdom and drawn ashore, where they're sorted out. 56 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:06.000 The ones that provide nourishment are kept. 57 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:10.000 The ones that aren't good to eat are thrown out. 58 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:23.000 Then there's yet another story embedded within that story, which I almost missed, about the end of the age, the weeping and gnashing of teeth. 59 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:27.000 We may or may not get to that part today. 60 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:35.000 The sixth and final parable is almost always, is also almost hidden. 61 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:40.000 Because first Jesus asks his listeners, have you understood all this? 62 00:09:40.000 --> 00:10:03.000 And they answer, yes, really, if they're being honest, if they really understood these little pearls that Jesus is offering them, they must have understood them in their hearts in a way that is difficult perhaps, for us to access today, rational beings that we are. 63 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:06.000 Here's the sixth parable. 64 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:16.000 Every scribe again, you and me, scribes, who has understood these stories is like the master of a household. 65 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:30.000 We've got our treasures, and we generously bring out what is old and what is new elsewhere. And it's not in Matthew's Gospel, it's in Luke's. 66 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:33.000 Jesus makes an extraordinary claim. 67 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:42.000 He's being interrogated by the Pharisees. And they ask him, when will the kingdom of God appear? 68 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:44.000 What will we see? 69 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.000 How will we know? 70 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:50.000 And he tells them, you're missing the point. 71 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.000 Don't look outside. 72 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:57.000 Don't wait for a portent or an apocalypse. 73 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:00.000 Don't wait for the end of time. 74 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.000 It's already here. 75 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:09.000 The kingdom of God is within you. 76 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:15.000 And friends, the kingdom of God is within every one of you. 77 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.000 The thing is that we forget that. 78 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:22.000 Or sometimes when we remember, we don't believe it. 79 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:26.000 And even if we believe it, it can scare us. 80 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:35.000 Because embodying the kingdom of heaven comes with the responsibility to love one another. 81 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:37.000 The kingdom of heaven. In me? 82 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:40.000 Yes, in you. 83 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.000 And in every one of God's creatures. 84 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:50.000 God's love is the thread that holds this whole created cosmos together. 85 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.000 It is primary. 86 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:55.000 It is the first and the last. 87 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.000 And that thread runs right through all of us. 88 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:05.000 It weaves us into the tapestry of creation. 89 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.000 Lest we forget, because we do forget. 90 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:35.000 Jesus reminds us beneath all the layers of everything that life throws at us, beneath these individual identities that we hold so dear and hold so tightly, beneath our failures and our accomplishments, beneath the roles that we take on and the roles we have thrust upon us, there it is, the kingdom of Heaven. 91 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:40.000 The mustard seed waiting to be planted and tended to. 92 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:50.000 Pure potential awaiting its purpose to provide safe haven for God's creatures. 93 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:52.000 It's within you. 94 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.000 Plant it. 95 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:55.000 Water it. 96 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:58.000 Tend to it. 97 00:12:58.000 --> 00:12:59.000 Yeast. 98 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:05.000 It may look like dust. It may appear insignificant, dead. 99 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:10.000 Be the woman who knows the miracle contained in the yeast. 100 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:17.000 Mix it with flour and the water of the world and watch it rise. 101 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:23.000 Bake it, and it will become a beautiful loaf, the bread of life. 102 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:28.000 It's within you, waiting for you to unlock its power. 103 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:31.000 Treasure hidden in a field. 104 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:33.000 You know it's there. 105 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:40.000 You put it there because you wanted to keep it safe for yourself. 106 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:45.000 It's going to cost you. Maybe it will cost you everything that you've stored up. 107 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.000 But if you're willing to, you will own that field. 108 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:54.000 And then the treasure will be yours to do with what you will. 109 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:04.000 It's within you, so I hope you can own it. And once you've owned it, that you will have learned that you can give it all away. 110 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:08.000 The merchant, the seeker, the discoverer. 111 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.000 The kingdom of Heaven. 112 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:13.000 It's all within you. 113 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:19.000 Keep searching until you find that pearl which is the Kingdom of Heaven too. 114 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:23.000 You're already every part of this story. 115 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:28.000 You are the seeker. You are the search, and you are the prize. 116 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:35.000 You are the pearl of great price again. You may have to let go of everything you think you own. 117 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:42.000 And I don't think Jesus was only speaking of material things here. 118 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.000 The kingdom of Heaven is within you. 119 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:50.000 You are the net woven from the net of God's love. 120 00:14:50.000 --> 00:15:00.000 You are all the fish, the good, the bad, swimming in the deep, waiting to be gathered up. 121 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.000 You're also the fish that got away, still swimming. 122 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:07.000 There will be another opportunity. 123 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:10.000 And another net. 124 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.000 Is this the end of the age? 125 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:17.000 Sometimes it feels like it. 126 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:19.000 Sometimes it feels like it. 127 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:26.000 But Jesus warns us against reading too much into the state of the world. 128 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:32.000 Regardless, you are the angels sorting things out. 129 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.000 You are the furnace. You are the fire. 130 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:40.000 And you are the weeping and gnashing of teeth. 131 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:47.000 The kingdom is within you and me and here we find ourselves today. 132 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:53.000 Have you understood all this? 133 00:15:53.000 --> 00:16:02.000 I do know that I want to stay awake and listen for the kingdom of heaven that stirs inside all of us. 134 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:15.000 It's old. It's as old as the Odyssey. It's as old as the Hebrew scriptures. It's as old as Jesus walking through Palestine teaching and healing and feeding people. 135 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:22.000 The kingdom of heaven was already there when the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep. 136 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:33.000 And it's right here, right now, in these church walls, outside of these church walls, permeating everything. 137 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:36.000 So let's listen to the ancient stories. 138 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:39.000 They go all the way down. 139 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:44.000 Let's listen to the parables that are our own lives. 140 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:54.000 They're mysterious messages to be heard when we listen to our own lives and there are lessons to be learned. 141 00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:04.000 Let's listen for the kingdom that is within each one of us knocking, waiting for the chance to bloom. 142 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:16.000 Amen.