Small Change

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In response to a recent sermon,
someone commented on Facebook that
I have a way of telling it like it is.

I responded that it was Jesus who told it like it is,
and I just get to let him out of the box.

It reminds me of what I learned
from listening to Old Testament scholar,
Walter Brueggemann.
In a hundred different ways
he tells us to let the text speak for itself.

But as you have heard me complain before,
we have domesticated the biblical text.
In fact, we have so tamed the bible
that when someone lets it loose
for us to see and hear what it actually says,
it blows us away
or rattles our cage
or makes us crazy.

I feel like what I am about to say
I have said so many times before –
and actually, I have.
There is only so much I can say
about these verses in Matthew,
and similar ones in Mark and Luke.

We hear these parables every year
in the lectionary cycle
and while each of the gospel editors
may have used them slightly differently
and in a variety of contexts,
there is a core wisdom
poking through every version.

Jesus tells us the kingdom of God
is built upon the accumulation of unnoticeable,
inconsequential moments.

The kingdom of God
is the Cosmos
upon whose branches are nestled
countless spinning orbs,
far-flung fiery asteroids,
and clusters of life in untold trillions –
and all of it
has its origins
in the teeniest,
the tiniest
speck of a molecule.

Now that may be a slightly more 21st century metaphor
than the agricultural mustard seed one,
but it conveys the same idea.

To this parable,
Matthew has Jesus add another,
the one about leaven.
Hidden in only three measures of flour
the leaven nonetheless contaminates all the flour.

I take that to mean
that while God may not be
present in all things,

God’s presence makes all things sacred,
while also ripening in the moment;
ripening inconspicuously
as the first parable notes.
But the most dramatic thing
about both parables is…
they are not about us.

We are not the one who animates life.
It is not our seed that grows.
It is not our tree.
None of it requires our action to take place.
We cannot ripen it.
We probably cannot even hurry it.

I am going to repeat myself
the way Jesus does with these parables:

We are not the one who animates life.
It is not our seed that grows.
It is not our tree.
None of it requires our action to take place.
We cannot ripen it.
We probably cannot even hurry it.

Clearly there is something about it NOT
being about us,
Jesus thought was important for us to know.

This is hard news for human beings
because we like to imagine it IS all about us
and all about what WE do.
In this case, apparently not.
It is all God’s action
and whatever God is doing.
We are told God is ripening
without our knowledge
and without our input,
and as far as we know,
without our action.

I don’t know about you,
but I would rather carry the weight of the world
on our my shoulders
than accept that the kingdom of God
is moving
and growing
and acting
in utter inconspicuousness
all around me
and without depending upon me.

That’s absolutely crazy when I think about it:
I would rather be crushed by the weight of the world
than live in the consciousness
that the kingdom of God is cruising
just fine without me.

The kingdom of God
lives and moves and has its being,
and unfolds in the universe
with or without us.

What these parables are telling us
is that the kingdom of God is ripening
with small,
insignificant,
inconspicuous,
with unnoticeable growth
and incremental accumulation.
God does what God will do
where God chooses to do it.

It does not mean we don’t matter
but it does mean we are small change.
You, me, Dr. King, Mother Teresa,
Presidents, Kings, and Queens –
all the same small change.
Just pennies,
all of us.

But take heart.
The currency in the economy of God
is small change.
Lots of it.
Lots of small change accumulating over time
until another seemingly small event
instigates an avalanche of history.

The economy of God,
the realm or kingdom of God,
whatever we want to call it,
ripens beneath our noses
in such small and inconspicuous ways
that we never notice
until we are suddenly overwhelmed by it.

That is one of the reasons I like to use the so-called
Romero prayer as an affirmation sometimes.
It is another take on the parables we heard this morning
and I think I will end with it
as a prayer.

So, with all that is happening around us
with the pandemic,
and a kingdom moment for anti-racism,
and a social fabric that is horribly threadbare just now…
let us pray.

Gracious God, help us, now and then,
to step back and take the long view:
Your kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is your work.

Nothing we do is complete,
remind us that your kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement can say all that could be said.
No prayer can fully express our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No healing brings complete wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church’s mission.
No goals and objectives includes everything…

Empower us then, O God, to make a beginning,
a step along the way,
an opportunity for your grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results
so grant us the wisdom to know
this is the difference between
the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen.

You and I are small change in the economy of God,
but even so, we live and move
and have our being in the Creator of all that is.
It feels right to me
that we should give thanks to God
for such goodness.