What God is Like

Matthew 13:31-33,44-52

At some point, likely a very difficult point in your life, you might have heard someone say that “it’s all a part of God’s plan” or “Everything happens for a reason.” You might have even said these things yourself, in a truly well-meaning and kind-hearted way. You would not be alone. There are many for whom these faith claims bring some measure of comfort in the wake of enormous loss or grief or fear. But what so many of us learn in the midst of pain is that these are ugly corruptions of the truth that God works all things together for good. These are empty promises, platitudes that so often do more harm than good to those they are meant to comfort.

Jesus has no interest in handing out platitudes. Instead, he gives us parables.

Jesus wants us to know what the kingdom of heaven is like, and the way he chooses to tell us is so silly and strange. Yeast and mustard and pearls and fishes and a buried treasure. It sounds like an ingredients list for a witch’s potion in a fairy tale.

The sower and the seeds. The wheat and the weeds. The mustard seed in the field. The yeast in the flour. The hidden treasure, the pearl of great value, the net full of fish. And on and on the parables of Jesus run, like little morsels meant to pique our interest and whet our appetite before a lavish meal. We are meant to keep coming back for more, to notice and wonder and ask questions. What do these familiar parables have to tell us now?

The mustard seed doesn’t just grow, but becomes big enough to provide safety and rest to nesting birds that fill the field with their songs. The woman doesn’t just add yeast to enough flour for a single loaf, but works with over fifty pounds of flour, enough to feed a small army or at least an entire village. It is far too much work for one person to do alone, and it would have taken all day and all night, laboring side by side in community. A tiny seed that is buried in the soil, never to be seen again as it is cracked open by the emerging seedling, and sourdough starter that is first subsumed into flour, then placed in a hot oven, ceasing to be at the exact moment that dough becomes bread. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like.

The field was just a field, until treasure was hidden there. The merchant was just a merchant, until he sold everything for the pearl and ceased to be a merchant at all. The net was just a net until it was thrown into the sea and gathered the fish that would feed a village.  In the creative world of Jesus’s parables, each one becomes something more. Someone finds treasure, and forsakes everything for it. A merchant finds an incomparable pearl, and sells all that he has to obtain it. A net is cast into the sea, and when the fisherfolk reel it back in, they discern between what can sustain them and what cannot. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like.

These are stories of transformation. Of something ordinary becoming something extraordinary. Have you ever been surprised by a seed that outgrew the place it was planted? It is wild, and a little overwhelming, and so beautiful. Have you ever seen the raw ingredients of bread become enough food to feed a crowd? Every step is a miracle, and every phase requires the work of human hands interacting with the creativity of God’s good earth. Who would look at plain flour and think, “that will sustain me and my family”? Even more, who would look at bread and think, “that is the real presence of my Lord and Savior”? And yet it does sustain us. And yet it is the Body of Christ, the bread of heaven. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like.

I don’t know a lot about treasure hunting, or the ancient pearl market, but I’ve seen what gets caught in a net that is cast into the ocean. You might catch what you want, whether its fish or crab or something else. But you’re also going to catch seaweed, and dead creatures, and trash that was left behind on a beach somewhere or allowed to carry on the wind from who knows where. You’ll catch fish that are too big for your needs, and fish that are too small or too young. A wise and responsible fisher throws back quite a bit of what they catch, allowing the creatures of the sea to grow and flourish and contribute in their own ways. Is this what the kingdom of heaven is like?

When Jesus puts before us a parable, we are meant to take a moment to marvel. To wonder at the workings of a God whose kingdom can be like mustard seeds and pearls, whose kingdom resembles treasure and also fish. Maybe there is a plan, maybe there isn’t, maybe it doesn’t matter one way or the other. Maybe some things happen for a reason, probably most things just happen. Our God is not something separate, something aloof from our reality. Our God is not a puppet master pulling strings and knocking over dominoes and deciding who will rise and who will fall. Our God is a creator of tiny seeds and massive trees, of the ocean and of wheat and of the organisms that create sourdough and pearls. Our God talks in parables and also straightforwardly tells us that we are created as good and beloved and that we will never be left alone or forgotten. Our God transforms and transfigures and resurrects. Our God refuses to be separated from us, not even by death. This is what God is like. What a kingdom this must be, if it is anything like our God.