As we start to talk about meaning, meaning answers the why.

As I was thinking about this and the fact that it’s Lent, I’m wondering if any of you gave something up for Lent. You don’t have to raise your hands, this can be internal. I’m not going to put anybody on the spot, but if you did, my question is why? Why did you choose to give something up for Lent? Because I think the why is important.

Is the why, because it’s something that you always do? Does it give you something to talk about with friends? Do you wanna prove to yourself that you have some self-control so that when it comes to Easter you can pat yourself on the back? Why? Or is it because that’s what the church used to tell you to do? I remember those days.

As I told the children, we assign meaning to things, to people, and even to experiences. If I asked what was your first car, you probably remember it, because that was a significant point in your life. I know some of you are just getting there. You’ll remember it.

Our parents are important in our lives and their words and how we experience them affect us deeply. Because they’re an important person to us.

Seeing a spectacular sight. That’s what’s different for each of us.

The Northern Lights is on my bucket list. I went to Maryland for a trip and Pennsylvania saw the Northern Lights. I have lived in this county all my life and I go to Maryland once and you all see the Northern Lights. That’s an experience that once you’ve done it, you remember that.

It might be a smile or a hug from a child that we deem priceless.

Now, I’m wondering how many of you looked at the picture to the left and what meaning you assigned to that picture. That is the oldest slave shack to still exist in the United States. It is in the Virginia Chipokes Plantation State Park. Now that you know that, that might change what you were thinking about that picture.

As we begin to get into these parables today, there’s a few things that I want to name before we go there.

The first thing that we need to remember with all scripture is, that it doesn’t matter what scripture you open to and read, all scripture was written for a specific time and a specific audience. In fact, the reality is those writers had no idea we would still be reading their works 2,500 years later. If you think about the Hebrew Bible, and placing so much value on everything they said. They didn’t know at the time that they would become part of the number one bestseller of all time. That’s good to remember that it wasn’t written specifically with us in mind.

It’s also good to remember that, for that time, they understood what a kingdom was. There are all of these parables that refer to the kingdom of heaven. They were reminded of their history when the kingdom of God was under King David, and that was a wonderful time for the Jewish people. That was a time under David and Solomon. Life was good. But they also know that there are bad kingdoms, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and now the Romans.

The Romans, we call it an empire, but it’s the same idea. That there is one leader and he’s deciding exactly how life is going to be. The good, bad, and the indifferent. Being part of God’s kingdom or the kingdom of heaven was a good thing. Good things came out of that because God’s not the same as the kings or the emperors. God is a different kind of king. But, that kingdom language today is associated in our country with Christian nationalism, which has a very definite political position that I do not support.

So, I’m not going to use the language of the kingdom of heaven when I talk about the scripture. I’m just naming that for you the meaning behind that.

It’s also good to know that the Greek word that is used for the kingdom is Basilea. Basilea means the spiritual reign. The future physical manifestation of God’s rule, and it encompasses the authority, sovereignty, and royal power of God, as well as the community of believers who acknowledge his lordship. I’m going to refer to it as the beloved community. I’m just explaining my language and why I’m doing it that way.

I know this is a lot of unpacking before we get there, but I’m going to leave a lot of unpacking of the parables to you. The other part is we have to remember that in a parable, there is always a surprise factor. Parables were their stories meant to tell the truth about God and about the way God would want life to be oriented. But they’re also meant to shock us and make us go, well, that’s ridiculous.

Last week I had said to you that it’s good to ask questions of the scripture.

If there’s a scripture that doesn’t sound right, sit with it and pray about it. Look it up, look at other places, look for other words. You can do a Google search on a particular word and it’ll tell you other passages that that word is used in and you can go a little deeper because it’s in the questions that we get to the meaning. After all, this is about meaning today.

What we want to know is what truth does this name about the beloved community of God? The actual scripture says the kingdom of heaven. So it begins with the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. So what is this trying to tell us? Or we could say, what is the surprise that something that small can have a huge impact? We know that seeds are small, and some seeds will grow into a tree eventually such as an acorn will grow an oak tree. But the tiniest of seeds don’t usually grow us the largest of plants, shrubs, or trees. But it does remind us of the potential.

The potential for every small thing. Whether it’s a small thing you do. Whether you feel like you are a small person, what can you do in this situation? You might be able to do quite a lot just by doing small things that can have a larger impact. The yeast. I considered bringing in my sourdough starter and sitting here working with bread in front of you today. But, you know, what’s the point of the yeast? Why would you hide, and we always hide, yeast in the flour? Because it helps it to rise. It helps it to become more than just flour. Put too much yeast in it and I’ve blown the top off my sourdough starter. That’s a thing, a little bit can transform it.

The hidden treasure. This is a great one. Do you remember what I said about that? That’s where the man goes and he finds a treasure. Then he re-buries it, sells everything he has, and buys the plot. Buys that that piece of land. Do you have any questions about that? Don’t you wonder why he reburied it? If you found it, why would you put it back in the ground? Why not keep it? Go sell it. Display it. Do something with it. Give it to somebody. But he didn’t. He put it back in the ground. Why did he buy the rest of the land? My thinking is he thought that there was more. What does it teach us?

There is this sense that once you find a little bit, you want more of it and you’ll do whatever you can to get more of the beloved community.

How about the merchant who finds the pearl and sells everything he has for one pearl? Does that bother you? Would you do that? Would you sell everything that you have? Maybe not for a pearl, but what would you do to know that you are part of the beloved community of God? Because that’s what the pearl is. That’s what the pearl represents. What would you do for that assurance that you are part of the kingdom?

Then we have the net that they cast and a fish of every kind is brought in. The beloved community of God is inclusive. Later, we’ll figure out who’s the righteous and who’s the evil. But first, God wants everyone to be invited. Everyone comes into the beloved community of God and we’ll figure it out later.

Then, there’s the scribe that says that there is old wisdom and that there is new wisdom.

I look at that and hear there’s the law and the prophets and there is Jesus. Jesus says, I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill it. There’s the old wisdom and the new wisdom and they exist together. There is the way we’ve always done it and the new things that we can do. They can exist together and we can determine what is the best wisdom for this time.

It is with Jesus. So the law still stands, but Jesus brought in all these Gentiles with the Jewish community, those who the Jewish community had thought were outcasts. Jesus says, no, they’re not, they’re part of the community. Everybody, it’s that inclusive net. Everybody’s coming in.

Because at the end of the day, love wins.

I think that’s the biggest piece that I want you to focus on. The parables can be confusing, but no matter what happens, our focus needs to be on doing the most loving thing. I do believe that love wins. By doing what we can, we make meaning of it. Meaning is not something you can buy at the store. It’s what you do. It’s how it affects you.

The other thing this tells us is that we’re not responsible for the outcomes. God takes care of that. God takes care of it and God will judge.

So at this moment, what are we learning? What are we learning right now in our lives? I’m not going to answer that question. That’s a question for us to sit with. What are we learning? What is the meaning that we want to make of this time in our lives? This time we are living through together. What do we want this to be? What meaning do we want to give to this?

I know there’s a lot of people that are scared. There’s a lot of chaos, and it can feel like every day is a new day in many ways depending on what else is going on in our lives. We are called to let love win, we need to be reminded that we are resurrection people and that before you get to rise, there has to be a death. We’re anxious as we see systems breaking. But a just system, which we don’t have, we don’t have just systems. A just system cannot come in until the systems that are in place are broken. I know that’s not good news. But remember, we go through the pain.

We go through the dark night, and in the end, love wins. There is resurrection, there is new life, there is justice, love, hope, and peace. We don’t know when that’s going to happen, or how it’s going to happen. But I’m going to read this to you every week. Because everything is meaningful. This time that we’re living through, not only do we need to think about what it is for us, but we need to be thinking about what we are telling and teaching our children in this moment.

Because they’ll need to remember this. So this is, these are the first couple of verses to the finale of Steven Sondheim’s musical, “Into the Woods”. “Careful the things you say, children will listen. Careful the things you do, children will see and learn. Children may not obey, but children will listen. Children will look to you for which way to turn, to learn what to be, careful before you say “listen to me”, children will listen.“

May it be so. Amen.

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