Aretha Franklin and the Kingdom of Heaven; Feb 17, 2019 sermon

Rev. George Miller
Feb 17, 2019
Matthew 13:24-34

When soul-legend Aretha Franklin died a few months ago, stories started swirling around about her life, her legacy, and her music.

One story in particular stood out. It is said that one night Aretha and her husband got into an awfully terrible, heartbreaking fight.

It was so bad that Aretha stormed out of their home and went for a long, long walk through the streets of the city.

By the time her emotions had cooled down, Aretha went to go home, but she realized that in her anger and haste she had left her pocketbook behind.

All she had was some loose change for the subway. So here she is, The Queen of Soul, riding a subway late at night on this desolate, journey through the bowels of the city, when she sees and overhears a couple across from her.

They are standing by the sliding doors, entangled in a lovers embrace.

“I love you,” the man said to the woman.

“I love you too,” the woman responded.

When the train stops and the doors open, the woman steps out and the man says “Call me the moment you get there.”

Legend has it that Aretha was so touched and inspired by this exchange that as soon as she got back to her place she sat down at the piano and immediately composed one of her greatest songs, “Call Me,” which begins with a word for word repeat of the conversation she had just heard.

Because of a negative experience, Aretha experienced an opportunity to create a tender, heart-felt ode to love that has proven to be timeless.

Because of weeds, she had an unexpected opportunity to create a slice of musical bread that has outlasted whatever anger or fire she and her husband had endured a few hours before.

We never really know, do we, how things will or will not work out in the world.

That is one way we can approach today’s readings.

We are no longer on the mountain with Jesus, but this time beside the sea. Jesus has gotten into a boat as the crowds gather on the beach.

Jesus teaches the people using parables, a rather unique form of storytelling in which the rather ordinary and mundane is used to spark wonder and surprise.

The parables are not straight metaphors, nor are they direct revelations of knowledge. They are more like verbal puzzles in which the pieces are intentionally not meant to fit.

This ancient story telling technique is meant to make a person think, to scratch their head, to feel uncomfortable, to debate, and to further enter into the world of mystery that ancient religions so thrived upon.

Parables are rich with imagery but lean in actual words. They can tell us what we are ready to hear, or what we need to hear.

If you notice, each of today’s parables use the expression “The kingdom of heaven is like…”

We hear this expression so often, we have perhaps grown numb to it.

First, “heaven” is not a word that specifically means a place in the sky we go after we die. Back then “heaven” was a poetic way to refer to God without always having to say God or Lord.

So when Jesus says “Kingdom of heaven” there is a chance he is actually saying “Kingdom of God.”

But there is another component; the political one. Kingdom is a very loaded, powerful word that sparked emotions and created responses in people just as the words “Wall” and “#MeToo” spark reactions today.

Kingdom is another word for empire, or rule, or government.

So Jesus is not just telling a quaint series of parables about wheat and weeds, seeds and birds, yeast and bread.

Jesus is being in-your-face provocative, standing on a boat, speaking to a mass of people around him, saying “The government of God is like….”

“The constitution of God is like…”

“The presidency of God is like…”

If you wonder why Jesus was such a threat, it’s because he used political terms to address spiritual matters.

And in this world of parables, what did Jesus teach about God’s government?

There are numerous interpretations. But one interpretation can be that the government of God is like a field in which both weeds and wheat are allowed to coexist and it’s not for the people to decide who are the weeds that need to be ripped out.

Another interpretation can be that under God’s rule, the smallest of seeds can become a place in which every bird is welcome to make its home and raise their family.

Another interpretation can be that in God’s empire, the simplest of resources can be used to create a feast for hundreds.

Of course, these are just 3 interpretations. You may like them; you may not. You may be nodding your head in agreement; you may be scratching your head in confusion; or you may be shaking your head in anger.

But you got to think, to wrestle, to wonder, and to ride a subway train into the heart of the scripture and see what is there.

But what’s really cool about the parables of Jesus is how often they are about surprise, about the unexpected, and about how the ways of God often go against what the world says is possible or expects.

The world expects a morsel, God provides an abundance.

The world expects the weeds to be immediately ripped up, while God says “wait; be patient; let me deal with this.”

The world expects a tiny seed to become nothing more than a tiny shrub, and God says “Hold my wine and watch how this is going to become the biggest tree you’ve ever seen.”

The world expects a lover’s spat to end in heartbreak and God says “Listen to the melody I am about to place within your spirit.”

After all, in God’s kingdom, we saw how a childless couple was able to give birth to a nation.

In God’s kingdom, we witnessed how a queen saved her people not with weapons but with her words.

In God’s kingdom we are witnessing how Jesus turned an ordinary boat into a pulpit, a mountaintop into a church, and a ragtag group of 12 men into revolutionaries who would change the world.

In God’s kingdom we saw how a manger could hold a king, and how a Cross would mark not the end, but welcome a whole new beginning.

The Kingdom of Heaven is an amazing awareness of reality in which God is present for those who wish to see,

and God is working behind the scenes, using the most mundane, the most unexpected to bring growth, to affect change, and to show God’s eternal love.

God loves us. God invites us to grow. God invites us to gather. God invites us to be fed.

On the mountaintop, by the sea, on the subway, God is there.

In the hardships and obstacles, in the miraculous and mundane, in the ordinary and the extraordinary, God is there.

Amen and amen.