Image: Keith Haring’s signature art style is highly recognisable across the globe, and his 1987 piece Untitled (Dance) is no exception. Featuring five dancers, Haring utilises vivid primary colours and bold lines to create a sense of movement. As with all his work, Untitled (Dance) creates a sense of fun, life and unity.
‘Sing and dance in search of God’
Andrew Collis
Ordinary Sunday 17, Year A
Psalm 105; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Jesus is talking about his experience of God, the divine presence he feels in his heart and all around him. And Jesus wants to share this experience – feelings and thoughts, values and hopes – that’s why he tells stories about it. So that disciples (students) might understand and enjoy – and share – their faith too.
He describes his experience of God as entering the “kindom of heaven” – the Greek term is basileia … in Hebrew the term is malkuth … and in Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke), malkutha … It’s a word Jesus uses over and over. It’s very important to him because it means something like the place where love is king or queen, the place where love rules.
Who is God? Where is heaven? Jesus says, you’ll find God in the place where love rules. And according to the parables Jesus tells, that place is all over the place.
It’s in the soil that nurtures the seed. It’s in the tiny mustard seed that grows into a tall bush. It’s in the heart and actions of someone who knows what real treasure is. It’s a pearl most valuable, invaluable. It’s in the joy of finding a coin or sheep that was lost, or seeing someone again you thought had gone away forever. It’s like the yeast a baker takes and mixes with the flour …
Psalm 105 begins: “Sing and dance in your search for God./ Look everywhere/ and drink in the divine presence./ You are called to tell the stories of God.”
A song, like “Maker of Mystery” and many others, about the kindom of heaven …
Kin means relative, like brother or sister, parent or child, cousin – member of the family. It can also mean friend, neighbour … comrade, companion … We might say that a good friend is a mate … We might call a dog or cat “baby” or “buddy” …
Our friend Margaret painted the fig trees she loved, seeing them as fellow beings …
Seek this family first, Jesus teaches (Matthew 6:33). Look for this love, this underlying holiness, this connection, this way of sharing what’s needed for life, this family feeling or Spirit … And don’t let other things worry you too much. Once you enter this kindom of heaven you’ll want to share everything …
Even a little of this love – like a little bit of yeast – can make a big difference.
Jesus tries all kinds of ways to share his experience. He knows it’s not always easy to enter a place where love is, and not easy to stay there.
Sometimes, it seems, we prefer living in other kingdoms – shadow kingdoms of fear, guilt or shame, or glamorous venues, competitive, divisive. We don’t want to think of people we don’t like as kin, as family. We might not want to feel a spiritual connection to animals or rocks or trees …
Jesus is teaching a wisdom that Aboriginal Elders know very well. We are all connected to the land, through the land. There’s an underlying holiness in the Earth. The land is sacred. The Spirit is in the water, the animals …
“We are trying – and have been trying for hundreds of years – to show you who we are, but all you do is see who we are not: you. We’re not telling you to only see us – we’re only saying to see you within us. That’s connectedness. When we understand our connection to each other, the land and all that exists upon it, then we understand our place in all things and our belonging” (Steven Oliver).
The Dharug word for belonging is mirrung.
Catherine Keller refers to this wisdom when she writes: “Truth, like the manna [in the wilderness], cannot be hoarded, refrigerated or dried. It is a gift of the present and a grace of relation.”
Jesus was a Jewish teacher (rabbi), and bread had special meaning for Jewish people. They remembered that God had rescued them from slavery. This was one of their most precious memories/beliefs. God was the God of freedom. And when Moses gave them instructions for escaping their place of captivity (in Egypt), they obeyed what God said through Moses and made their bread quickly so they’d be ready to go. Making their bread quickly meant there was no time for yeast, no time for waiting until yeast activates and dough rises. And so they liked to eat flat bread …
So, when Jesus described his experience of God in a story about a baker adding yeast to a batch of dough, some of his disciples would have thought, “Oh no! That’s not for us! That’s not how we think about bread/God!”
Yeast activates the dough, yeast changes the dough, just like asking a question changes what we (and others) think and feel. Jesus is encouraging us to ask questions about life and about the way we live.
Are there different types of bread? Are there other ways to bake it and break it (that nourishment might be enjoyed and shared)? Who has something fresh to share with us that might be good for us? Have we been unkind or unfair to some people? Have we pushed away long-suffering souls (just like we push away yeast as something we don’t like or value)? Can our God speak to us through human and non-human beings we thought unworthy?
The Jacob stories, for example, raise questions about a hierarchy that prioritises the interests of the firstborn over those of younger siblings … and inspire further questions about patriarchy, cultural or religious superiority …
The letters of Paul are emblematic of passions transfigured … revolution …
Are there new ways for us to organise our community, our worship – more inclusive ways to celebrate difference? Making space that this might be (might keep being) a place where love rules? … Amen.
