Knowing Your Audience

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday July 24, 2011, the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Genesis 29:15-28

Psalm 128

Romans 8:26-39

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

I have mentioned that I use something called the Revised Common Lectionary to pick the readings we use in worship each Sunday. One of the glorious things about the lectionary is that it is used by many denominations and many congregations. If you were at another Presbyterian church today, the odds are very good that you will hear these same scriptures. It’s one of the ways the Church connects as the Body of Christ. Of course you won’t hear the same interpretation in each place, and that’s glorious too. Different sermons are a part of the glory of how God works in different places.

Matthew’s gospel takes his community into account when he uses the phrases “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God.” Matthew’s gospel was written for first century Jewish Christians. Because of his intended audience, Matthew’s gospel uses the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” 31 times and “Kingdom of God” just five. As for the other gospels, you won’t find “Kingdom of Heaven” in any of them. The other gospels use the phrase “Kingdom of God” 48 times.

Scholars say for the purpose of describing the kingdom, “Kingdom of Heaven” and the “Kingdom of God,” are interchangeable, but what is true to scholars was not true to Matthew’s congregation. So why use one over the other?

Something peculiar to Jews and Jewish Christians is that many will not say the word “God” lest they take the name of the Lord in vain. So Matthew’s gospel takes special care to avoid mention of God by name. Matthew’s gospel was written with such a distinct nod toward the sensitivities of Jewish Christians that over 85% of mentions of the kingdom use “Kingdom of Heaven.” As for the other gospels, this was not a concern. Matthew knew who he intended to hear this gospel and worked hard to make sure the language didn’t get in the way of the message.

Getting back to the Revised Common Lectionary, today’s reading presents a bit of a problem. Today’s reading is two different pieces from Matthew’s gospel containing five different parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. Well, surely interpreting five different parables is a big enough problem. Each of these parables could be the subject of a sermon on its own. But that’s what I want to bring to your attention today.

Today I want to focus on the parables’ audiences. Just plucking these verses out of the gospel like the editors of the lectionary did; it looks like they were addressed to a single audience. This is not so and it’s important to know who was intended to hear each of these parables because of what they mean to their intended audience.

The first two parables, the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, were intended for the crowds that were listening to Jesus. A different audience, Christ’s disciples alone, received the parables of buried treasure, the pearl of great price, and the net cast into the sea. These are two completely different and specific audiences who were meant to learn specific lessons about the Kingdom of Heaven from their specific parables.

The lessons of the mustard seed and the yeast are odd at worst, scandalous in their most glorious.

Let’s start with the fact that the parable of the mustard seed is loaded with factual errors! To start, mustard, while it’s a teeny-tiny seed, wasn’t the smallest known seed. Orchids were grown and harvested in this time and their seeds were then and are still now smaller than the mustard seed.

Saying that the mustard plant becomes a tree isn’t accurate either. It produces a great shrub, up to ten feet tall, but it isn’t a tree in any sense of the word. A mustard plant is an annual plant, not a perennial like a tree. When mustard goes dormant at the end of the growing cycle, it’s the end, not so for trees.

Where a large shrub is like a tree is that it can provide food and shelter for the most unexpected of visitors. You wouldn’t necessarily expect a shrub to protect life, but Jesus points out that this one does.

So what was Jesus doing with this parable? Jesus was saying that great things come from humble beginnings. Jesus was making a point of contrast, from a tiny seed comes something large enough to provide food and protection. Something extravagantly large comes from something infinitely minuscule. From the smallest seed, from the smallest action, from the briefest nod, the world can be changed.

There’s an old saying, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; because it’s the only thing that ever has.”

The lesson of the leaven has its own scandalous elements.

Let’s begin with the yeast itself. The Jews would have been shocked by the kingdom being like anything with yeast. Since the days of the Passover, bread with leaven was unholy. With the celebration of the Passover meal, the Seder, a liturgy is followed. During the celebration, someone will ask if all of the leaven is out of the house. To this day, Jews will keep one piece of leavened bread in the house so that there is something to throw out. To this audience, yeast is not holy, not at all. Yet Jesus says that the kingdom is like yeast worked into the flour.

The next bit that would have shocked the listeners was the woman. Only men worked in the temple, what could a woman do that would be useful to the kingdom of heaven? She was the one who hid the yeast in the flour.

The amount of flour was also shocking. We read three measures. In amounts that mean something to us, that comes to seventy pounds. In volume, that would come up to ten gallons. Once the yeast began doing its job, the mass and volume of the dough will increase far beyond what it was before the woman and the yeast did their work. That amount of dough would be able to make bread for between 100 and 150 people.

The parable of the leaven has three things no one would have ever expected, the yeast, the woman, and the amount; the impure, the unorthodox, and the overflowing. Jesus was making the point that the Kingdom of Heaven will not be what we expect. All that we can imagine the Kingdom to be is merely a poor reflection of what we find.[1]

Along with the parable of the wheat and the weeds we heard last week, these are the messages that were intended for the people outside of our Lord’s inner circle. God is sovereign. The kingdom is extravagant. The kingdom provides protection to all who seek its shelter. The kingdom is unorthodox; God will not be contained by our expectations. The kingdom is ever expanding.

It is also important to note that all of these parables deal with God’s actions in creation. It is only God who can grow a plant from a seed. It is only God who can make yeast do what yeast does. This becomes more important when talking about the next two parables where the focus moves from the contrast of small beginnings and cosmic impact to personal encounter with the Kingdom.

Where the parables of the mustard seed and leaven are made up of several elements conveying different facets of the parable, the parables of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value are to be taken as wholes. In these parables, the Kingdom of Heaven is like the entire story of the treasure and the entire story of the pearl of great value.

As for the parable of the treasure and the pearl of great value, they tell the disciples the same thing, the Kingdom is present, it’s glorious, and its price is dear. To have it you must be willing to give everything. Both of the treasure and the pearl parables say this. Like Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, the parable is repeated differently to emphasize its truth.

For as much as their object is the same, the human subject is different. Both the ploughman digging the earth and the merchant buying pearls are doing their regular day jobs. They’re taking care of business, and this is where their similarity ends. The man who found the treasure wasn’t looking for it. Maybe he has plowed this same field for years without finding the treasure, but in the wink of an eye the treasure finds him more than he finds it. When he sees it, he knows its value and knows what he has to do to have it.

As for the merchant, his business is pearls. He is looking for great and wonderful pearls. Then he finds one that is far beyond what he could ever hope or imagine. Like the ploughman he knows the value of his find. He also knows what he has to do to have it.

Jesus is reminding the disciples that the kingdom is their business, a business that requires their all.

As for the final parable, the parable of the great catch of fish, this one is similar to the parable of the wheat and the weeds showing that in the end of the age there will be a separation of the good and the bad. Like in that parable, the difference between good and bad is made by God and carried out by the angels.

When these lessons are shared, Jesus asks if they have understood all these things. Jesus asked if they understood that they would have to give everything. He asked if they knew the creation would be judged, and them along with it to which they say “Yes.” Jesus then told them that every teacher who has been instructed about the kingdom is like the owner of a house who brings out his treasure, the old and the new.

This means that those who teach need to know about the ancient covenants and the new covenant in Jesus Christ. Today we would say they need to know their Old and New Testaments.

So why did Jesus have different messages for the crowds and the disciples? Jesus answers this very question from the disciples in verses 11 and 13 of this chapter: “He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.’ The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’” As this was true when Jesus said it, so it is true today.

Earlier I said Matthew knew who he intended to hear this gospel and worked hard to make sure the language didn’t get in the way of the message. Jesus knew his audience and so did Matthew. As this was true it Matthew’s time, so it is true today.

Here in worship the interpretation of scripture is presented differently than it is in Sunday School. In Sunday School you would explain the parables differently to younger children than you would older children than you would teens. You would explain scripture to life-long Christians differently than you would to new Christians. Each of these folks is at different stages of intellectual, social, and spiritual development, so using the same illustrations for each of these groups is ineffective.

You also interpret the word differently to church members and the Session because Session members have different roles in the body of Christ; their role involves the responsibility of ruling. Not all are called to the same role in the church, so the word and the lessons should be presented as differently today as they were between the crowds and the disciples then.

Still the word is the word.

A professor in Austin once asked his Introduction to Preaching class “If the sermon were an arrow and the target represented the gospel, where should we aim?” He said to aim at the center, aim at the heart of the gospel. I later told him that I didn’t like his “target” analogy. I said that with different listeners being at different places in development to aim at the dead center would miss many.

I suggested turning the target on its side, shooting through every layer until reaching the heart of the gospel. Yes, it’s a more difficult shot in archery and preaching, but when done right it reaches all people. I believe this to be part of my call, being able to share the gospel with anyone I meet. It means that I have to be sensitive to them, and sensitive to what they are ready to hear and do with what they hear.

[And if I am failing to make this connection with you, please tell me or, if it makes you more comfortable, a member of the Session so they can tell me. Session members can tell me your concerns without telling me your name.]

In different ways, this is important for all of us. We have to know our Lord and our audience. Whether we sit on the Session, teach a Sunday School class, or listen to a friend who needs a shoulder to lean on; we need to be ready to share the gospel in a way others are able to hear. This way we can share the gospel making sure language doesn’t get in the way. This is the word of the Lord.

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[1] The following paragraph was cut for time consideration: In Austin, the evangelism professor had us read a text that laid out the kingdom of heaven from the perspective of a suburban megachurch pastor. I told that professor that I thought this author’s vision of the Kingdom of Heaven looked like Central Market, the Texas based gourmet mega-grocery store. I told him I thought it would look more like Fiesta, the huge Hispanic grocery store with a bank, salon, taqueria, and groceries a gringo like me wouldn’t know how to prepare on a bet. I believe this pastor imagined the kingdom like the American suburban dream. I think it will be more than I can know or imagine.