Coronavirus Talk 11
Let’s begin with an Our Father
I want to begin the second half of this series of talks by, once again, thanking Jim and Camille Spina for initiating this project and for inviting me to be a part of it. And I thank all of you, from my heart, for being here and for doing you part to create this community of faith and mutual support. Even as we might not be as traumatized tonight as were when we started this two weeks ago, this difficult situation with regard to the coronavirus has not yet resolved itself. So, rephrasing the Stockdale paradox we talked about the first night, we still need to “maintain absolute faith that we will prevail in the end and, at the same time, face the harsh reality that no one knows when the end will be; and therefore, by continuing to practice humility and solidarity, we resolve, with God’s help to turn this experience into a defining event which, in retrospect, we would not trade.”
We resume our dive into Jesus as the teacher and we do so with one of his sayings that I think applies to every one of us during these days of the virus:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11: 28-30
That beautiful little verse has three invitations: come to me, take my yoke, and learn from me. The meaning of “Come to me” is obvious, especially in times like these when Jesus may be the last place people think they will be able to find safety. In Jesus’ time, a Rabbi’s “yoke” consisted of the totality of his teaching to be passed on to his followers, so by saying “Take my yoke upon you,” Jesus means: “See everything as I see it and, in every situation, do what I would do.” And then he begs us: “Learn from me,” Jesus says to each one of us: “learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls.”
So, let us continue to learn from Jesus, the teacher. Last time we looked at the Sermon on the Mount and tried to see it as Jesus’ platform, as his statement of purpose, which, if we truly listen to it, far from making us comfortable and self-righteous, unsettles us and makes us wonder how we can possibly respond to the ideals he lays out for us. We will spend the rest of our lives wrestling with that challenge.
So, in addition to his sermons, Jesus used parables as his preferred method of teaching. In fact, nearly one-third of Jesus’ recorded teaching is in the form of the parable, and the parables are the teachings with which we are most familiar. Let’s talk about what a parable is.
A parable is a simple story which is used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.
There are two kinds of parables Jesus used and it’s helpful if we called them “window parables” and “mirror parables.”
Simply put, the window parables invite the listener to use the story to look outward, to look through a “window” in order to encounter a reality that parallels the reality we are experiencing. The window parables call us to see what life looks like when we have faith.
All of Jesus’ parables that begin: “The kingdom of heaven is like…” are window parables. When you hear “The kingdom of heaven is like…, know that a window parable is what follows. As I said last week, when Jesus uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven,” he is not talking about a specific place or time, like Disneyland or Nirvana, he is talking about a mind-set, an attitude, a different level of consciousness. The kingdom of heaven is this world, this place, thistime but, seen through the eyes of faith, turns all our assumptions about reality inside out, upside down and backwards. The kingdom of God is about this world but seen with the eyes of faith: it is a world in which the blind become the ones who see, the deaf are the ones who hear, the lame are the ones who walk, the poor are rich and the rich poor. The Kingdom of God is where the person who loses his life finds it.
Here is a good example of the window parable, in fact, two window parables.
“The kingdom of God is like a buried treasure which someone found in a field. They hid it again and rejoicing at what they found went and sold all they had and bought that field. Or again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant’s search for fine pearls. When he found one really valuable pearl, he went back and put up for sale all that he had and bought it.” – Matthew 13: 44-45
At first hearing, these sound like the same parable, but they are quite different. In the first parable, something is found by accident; in the second parable, something is found after a deliberate search. In the first parable, the kingdom is a treasure that we stumble upon as we are walking through the field of our lives, are amazed by its worth, and give up everything else so we can have that. In the second parable, the kingdom is compared to a merchant searching for things of great value. In this second parable, we are the pearls, we are the treasure found by the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, then, is both that which we find within ourselves who, when found, become someone of supreme value in the eyes of God. We are the fine pearls if we allow the kingdom of God, his attitudes, his consciousness, his mindset, to take root in us. And he gives up all he has, in the gift of Jesus, so he can have us.
Let’s look at another window parable.
“He proposed to them another parable: “The kingdom of God may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep, his enemy cam and sowed weeds through his wheat and then made off. When the crop began to mature and yield grain, the weeds made their appearance as well. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where are the weeds coming from?’ He answered, ‘I see an enemy’s hand in this.’ The servants said to him: “Do you want us to go out and pull them up?’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘pull up the weeds and you might take the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then, at harvest time, I will order the harvesters, First collect the weeds and bundle them up to burn, then gather the wheat into my barn.’” – Matthew 13; 24-43
The specifics of this story would have made a lot more sense to Jesus’ original audience. If a farmer wanted to sabotage another farmer’s crop, it wasn’t unheard of for him to sow weeds into his neighbor’s wheat. The weeds caused damage to the crop because their roots intertwined, and it was difficult to pull out the weeds without pulling out the wheat along with them.
The parable means that Jesus is sowing the seed of the kingdom of God throughout the world and inspiring many to “take his yoke upon themselves.” At the same time, there is a counterforce afoot in the world, who spreads counterfeit seed and influences people to dismiss the yoke of Jesus. It isn’t always easy to tell at the beginning the difference between those that belong to the kingdom and those who do not. Although the servants in the parable want to help the farmer by uprooting the weeds, it is not their job to make judgments about what is or what is not the real wheat. Their job is to help the farmer sow legitimate seeds of wheat. It’s the job of the harvester to judge who is and who is not a member of the Kingdom.
It seems to me that the parable of the wheat and weeds, in addition to referring to the world at large and the constant battle between good and evil we get used to, the parable also warns us to be careful about the good v. evil that takes place in our own hearts. We must be careful about wanting to be perfect so much that we start doing wholesale destruction of our inner lives in the misguided notion that doing so is pleasing to God. If we try to pull out ambition, we may pull out all zeal. If we try to pull out sexuality, we may pull out all passion, if we try to pull out pride, we may pull out integrity. If we try to pull out weakness, we may pull out vulnerability. If we try to pull out fear, we may pull out prudence, if we try to pull out madness, we may pull out creativity. If we try to pull out anger, we may pull out boundaries and self-respect.
Trying to make ourselves perfect, trying to run ahead of grace, as we do so often, is a recipe for spiritual self-mutilation. God knows what He is doing with us and is more patient with us than we ever are with ourselves. You and I are, after all, pearls of great price, for whom God gave up everything, including His Son, so He could have us. That is how much we mean to God. And this is what Jesus teaches us – if we look through the window.
Tomorrow night, we will look into the mirror.
Let’s end with a Hail Mary and a blessing.