I work with addicts, sharing Biblical wisdom and the good news of the gospel. It can be a pessimistic, morally ambiguous door to the Kingdom. Many are called, few are chosen. But the yeast parable keeps me going. It can take generations for the fullness of Kingdom to work It's way through a family or community.
The application to addiction is good example. The journey of recovery, on the front end, doesn't have a lot of pizzazz. Not a quick fix! Just keep showing up, sit in this circle, one day at a time, work the program. Doesn't seem very revolutionary. But over time, this is the way. The yeast expands.
“A child plants a mustard seed in an empty garden. It is an itty-bitty seed. It isn’t anything very special—yet.”
She concludes with "The kingdom of God is like a mustard see in the garden right outside our windows, growing from itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny to colossal, from impossible to see to unable to miss...it is not at all what we expect to find and yet there it is, surprising us, helping us to imagine what can be...
but isn't...yet!"
I think the kingdom and the good news is amazing - but Jesus hasn't come back yet. When I read Jesus' parables I sense so much of the work of imagination he is getting at has eschatological layers. Sure, there's some good news for today, there's gonna be some growth, but ultimately we're not gonna see the colossal tree until Jesus returns. For now we've got to put up with ordinary mustard bushes.
I’ve reread these first three posts to remind myself of Friend Beck’s pastoral perspective. It’s fair to do so, because he has a particular, genuine concern for Christian congregations. In contrast, I generally speak and write to a mixed bag of universalist seekers, some of whom are Christian, some who are not, and some who do not consider themselves religious at all.
I read scripture as one whose native religion is Christianity. However, I quit seminary in the early 1970s to wander with Jesus in the wilderness of my Christian and non-Christian, theist and nontheist fellows. I try to come to the gospels from the outside. I know and trust Jesus in my heart, but I know him better through the sacred stories about a first century Palestinian Jew. For now I read without the layers of theological constructs that grew up around him over later centuries.
From this perspective, I see not pessimism but patient realism in these parables. Yes, the Jesus of sacred story might say:
"I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
'You will listen and listen,
but never understand;
you will look and look,
but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown callous;
their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts,
and turn back—
and I would heal them.'"
But this is not to withhold the “secrets of heaven” from the crowds.
As I commented in Part 2, God’s grace is not limited by the readiness of people to receive it, and God never stops sowing the seeds. The kingdom of heaven has horizons, not boundaries. I cannot imagine the man Jesus threatening to play gatekeeper.
Yes, the parables do a sorting. But they do it over and over. Their inward wisdom is there for everyone to find, whenever the Spirit has stirred them deeply enough to make their hearts soften and their eyes and ears open.
You mention knowing him better through the sacred stories about a first century Palestinian Jew. Unfortunately much of what we call "Christianity" is based on Greek philosophy detached from the narrative account of the relationship of Israel and YHWH. Consequently, we have been drinking from the poisoned springs for centuries.
Friend Ross. I don't toss out all of the first century Greek influence altogether, for the original Paul (though not necessarily those who later borrowed his name) was doing his best to integrate Messianic Judaism into Greek culture. However, I am very wary of the elaborate cosmologies constructed in later centuries by rival theological schools.
I know people--my mother was one--who have somehow gone through orthodox Christianity and "come out the other side." For them the conceptual systems don't get in the way. They don't reject the theology, but they don't worry about it. They just do their best to live Christ-like lives.
"Communitas, because it is spontaneous, organizes from the bottom up, its structure accidental, its future open, its beliefs unformed.
"It has no civitas of its own, although it will always be found in one civitas or another. Because its identity is not established within boundaries, it remains untouched by the surrounding civitas.
"For example, Judaism was a presence in the civitas of Rome for all seven of its centuries….
"The history of the Christian communitas in Rome is more complicated. For two centuries it thrived through episodes of savage persecution. Then Constantine, converted to the faith in the year 312, sought to make the empire Christian.
"The favor was returned by Christians when they made of themselves an empire, under papal rule. Rome, it seems, was strikingly successful at tempting Christians into belief systems that cohered with its imperial designs.
"Nonetheless, the genuine Christian communitas, though severely diminished and endangered, never compromised its identity.
"To the present, however, many Christians are still tempted by dreams of social and political rule. It is not unthinkable that in time some of Rome’s successors will absorb them all, effectively creating an imperial Christendom, and erasing the historic communitas." (84-85)
I see your point about the initial pessimism about how the Kingdom is received by most, but the conclusion is that those who do receive it by faith in its seemingly insignificant beginning will see its glorious end. Perhaps, this is the secret and the promise to those who have ears to hear.
I work with addicts, sharing Biblical wisdom and the good news of the gospel. It can be a pessimistic, morally ambiguous door to the Kingdom. Many are called, few are chosen. But the yeast parable keeps me going. It can take generations for the fullness of Kingdom to work It's way through a family or community.
The application to addiction is good example. The journey of recovery, on the front end, doesn't have a lot of pizzazz. Not a quick fix! Just keep showing up, sit in this circle, one day at a time, work the program. Doesn't seem very revolutionary. But over time, this is the way. The yeast expands.
One of my favorite children's books to read my kids is the "Marvelous Mustard Seed" by AJ Levine: https://www.amazon.com/Marvelous-Mustard-Seed-Amy-Jill-Levine/dp/0664262759
“A child plants a mustard seed in an empty garden. It is an itty-bitty seed. It isn’t anything very special—yet.”
She concludes with "The kingdom of God is like a mustard see in the garden right outside our windows, growing from itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny to colossal, from impossible to see to unable to miss...it is not at all what we expect to find and yet there it is, surprising us, helping us to imagine what can be...
but isn't...yet!"
I think the kingdom and the good news is amazing - but Jesus hasn't come back yet. When I read Jesus' parables I sense so much of the work of imagination he is getting at has eschatological layers. Sure, there's some good news for today, there's gonna be some growth, but ultimately we're not gonna see the colossal tree until Jesus returns. For now we've got to put up with ordinary mustard bushes.
I’ve reread these first three posts to remind myself of Friend Beck’s pastoral perspective. It’s fair to do so, because he has a particular, genuine concern for Christian congregations. In contrast, I generally speak and write to a mixed bag of universalist seekers, some of whom are Christian, some who are not, and some who do not consider themselves religious at all.
I read scripture as one whose native religion is Christianity. However, I quit seminary in the early 1970s to wander with Jesus in the wilderness of my Christian and non-Christian, theist and nontheist fellows. I try to come to the gospels from the outside. I know and trust Jesus in my heart, but I know him better through the sacred stories about a first century Palestinian Jew. For now I read without the layers of theological constructs that grew up around him over later centuries.
From this perspective, I see not pessimism but patient realism in these parables. Yes, the Jesus of sacred story might say:
"I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
'You will listen and listen,
but never understand;
you will look and look,
but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown callous;
their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts,
and turn back—
and I would heal them.'"
But this is not to withhold the “secrets of heaven” from the crowds.
As I commented in Part 2, God’s grace is not limited by the readiness of people to receive it, and God never stops sowing the seeds. The kingdom of heaven has horizons, not boundaries. I cannot imagine the man Jesus threatening to play gatekeeper.
Yes, the parables do a sorting. But they do it over and over. Their inward wisdom is there for everyone to find, whenever the Spirit has stirred them deeply enough to make their hearts soften and their eyes and ears open.
Jesus calls us to heal, not to sort.
Blessings, Mike Shell
You mention knowing him better through the sacred stories about a first century Palestinian Jew. Unfortunately much of what we call "Christianity" is based on Greek philosophy detached from the narrative account of the relationship of Israel and YHWH. Consequently, we have been drinking from the poisoned springs for centuries.
Friend Ross. I don't toss out all of the first century Greek influence altogether, for the original Paul (though not necessarily those who later borrowed his name) was doing his best to integrate Messianic Judaism into Greek culture. However, I am very wary of the elaborate cosmologies constructed in later centuries by rival theological schools.
I know people--my mother was one--who have somehow gone through orthodox Christianity and "come out the other side." For them the conceptual systems don't get in the way. They don't reject the theology, but they don't worry about it. They just do their best to live Christ-like lives.
I agree, Friend Ross. I found an additional twist to this while rereading James Carse’s “Religious Case Against Belief” (see https://brightcrow.substack.com/p/am-i-a-nontheist-734):
"Communitas, because it is spontaneous, organizes from the bottom up, its structure accidental, its future open, its beliefs unformed.
"It has no civitas of its own, although it will always be found in one civitas or another. Because its identity is not established within boundaries, it remains untouched by the surrounding civitas.
"For example, Judaism was a presence in the civitas of Rome for all seven of its centuries….
"The history of the Christian communitas in Rome is more complicated. For two centuries it thrived through episodes of savage persecution. Then Constantine, converted to the faith in the year 312, sought to make the empire Christian.
"The favor was returned by Christians when they made of themselves an empire, under papal rule. Rome, it seems, was strikingly successful at tempting Christians into belief systems that cohered with its imperial designs.
"Nonetheless, the genuine Christian communitas, though severely diminished and endangered, never compromised its identity.
"To the present, however, many Christians are still tempted by dreams of social and political rule. It is not unthinkable that in time some of Rome’s successors will absorb them all, effectively creating an imperial Christendom, and erasing the historic communitas." (84-85)
I see your point about the initial pessimism about how the Kingdom is received by most, but the conclusion is that those who do receive it by faith in its seemingly insignificant beginning will see its glorious end. Perhaps, this is the secret and the promise to those who have ears to hear.