Breaking News

Breaking News Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 How many parables did I say there were last week? Thirty-six. Today we touch on half a dozen of them. Let’s begin by saying, “Oh wait, Breaking News!” How often do we hear that from newscasters? Everyday it seems. We watch ABC Nightly News, though I am getting tired of it, for every night the broadcast begins with “Breaking News.” We switched from NBC News a few years ago, and I am ready to switch again. Breaking News, everything is so important and life changing, so they would have you think. Every day, somewhere, something happens that warrants an immediate response in the media. Programming stops or a news flash runs across the bottom of our screens that breaks an important announcement. Jesus had world - and kingdom - shattering news to share, too. “Breaking News,” when we see these words, we know that something amazing, terrible, interesting, incredible, troubling, or heart-breaking has occurred. We also know that we’re about to learn more. Breaking news. These two words are in themselves interesting. What is the grammatical role of the word “breaking?” Was something okay that now is broken? Breaking is an adjective that modifies the word “news.” Maybe the news is broken! I’d go along with that. But I suspect it means “News that is breaking!” Perhaps you couldn’t care less. But now, the question looms: Just what is the news breaking? Think back to the events of the morning of September 11, 2001. Where were you at the time? What were you doing when the news broke about the airplanes that flew into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and the one that crashed into the Pentagon or here in PA? This news, like all “breaking news,” broke into our consciousness. It broke into history. It ripped through our communities, shredding conventional ideas, traditional assumptions and long-held beliefs. It was news that altered, modified, shattered and forever changed — something. The John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations in the 1960s; the moon landing in 1969; the Challenger explosion, they were important. Reality, life and human experience would never be the same. These events were indeed “breaking news,” or news that broke in upon our consciousness and awareness. Our lives, as we knew them, changed on those days; nothing was ever the same. Something indeed had been broken. Jesus came to break sin and death. This is the meaning conveyed by our gospel reading for today, although certainly not in the negative sense of 9/11. Rather, the news that Jesus breaks is astonishing and incredibly good news. In fact, this is the way the announcement is framed in the gospels. Breaking news: The kingdom of God is upon us! The kingdom 2 of God is within you! Or, as John the Baptist would thunder, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3:2). Jesus Himself, after His baptism and temptation in the wilderness, began His ministry by announcing the same exciting, incredible and utterly novel news: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). It’s fair to say that most people, after hearing breaking news, want details. Many have a hungering and thirst for more details, more information, more background or more understanding. If we’re like this, we will stay tuned. We want to know more. Breaking News…     A new medication for Alzheimer’s is given provision approval. COVID cases are on a steep decline and so are vaccinations – that is both good and bad news. FBI arrests hundreds of criminals around the world after they were tricked into using a messaging app secretly run by the FBI. US Justice Department recovered the majority of a multimillion-dollar ransom payment to hackers after a cyber-attack. It’s about time we strike back… This is what Jesus does in our text. He provides context. He tries to give the disciples understanding and insight. The kingdom of God has broken into history. It shatters everything! What does this incredible, amazing and daring action mean? Jesus explains with parables and metaphors.      Okay, he says, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. Or, try this: It’s like yeast. Or, here’s another way of looking at it: It’s like treasure in a field. It’s also like an expensive pearl. Finally, it’s like a fishing net. Now, let’s look at each of these item by item, and then draw some conclusions. The mustard seed. This seed is so small that it’s almost invisible. Yet from this virtually invisible seed, a huge shrub, a tree even, develops, large enough for birds to nest and rest. This is an image of the kingdom of God. Its power is so great that no matter how small the work, no matter how small the seed that is sown, it results in something quite amazing. As for the birds, the reference may well speak to the nature of the kingdom as a hospitable place where all are welcomed, protected, comfortable, where one can find shelter and rest. The metaphor also reminds us that we cannot do everything. All we can do is plant seeds, ideas, hopes and dreams that may well develop into something larger than ourselves. Some “seeds” might be virtually 3 invisible to the eyes of others — insignificant, meaningless, unimportant until they have become something much larger. When I was the spiritual director and a social worker at the Children’s Home in Binghamton, I saw a need for a mentoring program. I asked around and everyone knew it was needed but no one had the time to develop one. So I did. Long story short, I created the Friend to a Child program with the Department of Social Services. We provided all the training, had all the kids, and put the volunteers and children together. It was a blessing for all. Adoptions took place, kids had mentors with time away from campus. The program got so big we had to hire a new person to oversee it. A seed to a shrub, an idea to a friend for life. Yeast. The meaning of this metaphor is similar to the previous one. That which is small, virtually invisible, yields an astounding product much larger than itself. In this case, the emphasis is not on external, material growth, but something that is happening inwardly. The leaven works within the dough. Jesus is driving home the principle that the kingdom of God penetrates, permeates, and pervades a person or a neighborhood, or a culture and world into which it has been introduced. Dough without yeast is heavy, thick, inert and tasteless. Dough into which leaven has been introduced is completely different. The kingdom of God is a changing agent; it causes growth, expansion, development, movement, a metamorphosis. So what is our image of the kingdom of God? Like a Sweet Hawaiian bun, or an unleavened piece of pita flatbread? The treasure in a field and an expensive pearl. It was not uncommon in the first century A.D. for someone who had something quite valuable to bury the precious item in his backyard or field. It would be protected from marauders and thieves. Remember the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30)? A wealthy man goes on a journey, but gives some money to three of his servants and asks them to invest it wisely so that there is a handsome ROI (Return On Investment) when he returns. Time goes by. The master returns, and two of his servants are pleased to announce that they made a significant profit for their employer during his absence. The third servant, however, is only able to return the original cash. Jesus says, “The one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.” He protected his master’s money by burying it in the ground. The master was not pleased, and the servant was disallowed. Jesus’ parable supposes that someone has found a treasure in a field accidentally. What is he going to do now? He buys the field so he can legally claim the treasure in the field. On the other hand, the purchase of a priceless pearl is a different matter. In this case, the pearl is not discovered accidentally. The pearl is 4 discovered by someone who is shopping for precious gems, or something similar. He finds this incredible pearl, and knowing its value, sells off everything he owns to purchase it. Breaking news! The kingdom of God is more precious than anything in this world. It’s worth anything we can do or give to possess it! This is Jesus’ message time and again. Remember the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-27)? He couldn’t do it. On the other hand, when the followers of Jesus joined Him, they left everything behind. Those who could not do so were left behind. Those who did, inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus seems to imply a sort of “hidden” quality to the kingdom of God. The treasure is buried; the pearl is sequestered within the shell. Still, some people stumble upon the kingdom of God anyway, albeit accidentally. Some are searching for it and find it. But in any case, once discovered, you divest yourself of anything that would deny complete possession of this incredible “pearl of great price.” A fishing net. Most exciting of all perhaps (for a people living under the thumb of the Roman Empire), is the message that someday the kingdom of God will triumph over evil. This last parable provides further details about the “breaking news” of the kingdom of God; that the kingdom of God is not just a present spiritual reality, but also an inevitable future physical reality. This eventual dimension of the kingdom reminds us that the weeds will someday be separated from the wheat (13:24-30); someday the “bad” fish will be separated from the good (v. 38). The evil will be separated from the righteous. This is indeed good news for these people, as it is for us today. The times in which we live have been and continue to be dangerous, confusing, even crushing times for some. We are beset by so many ways of thinking. Evil and unrighteousness are all around us. We are often beleaguered by despair and uncertainty if one believes and is weighed down by all the breaking news of the media. But the message today reminds us to step out into the light of the certain victory and triumph that Jesus has prepared and secured for all who believe and embrace Him. Breaking news indeed! We can leave all the turmoil of this world and judgment to come in the hands of God and we can go back to being the church, being a mustard seed, being the yeast in the loaf, being a fishnet, being the ones who bring Good News, the priceless pearl, the positive effects to our worlds.