Play to the Ref!
Reflections on Matthew 13.31-33, 44-52
RCL Proper 17A
30 July 2017
Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
Matthew 13.31-33, 44-52
13.31 [Jesus] put
before them another parable: “The
kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his
field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown
it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air
come and make nests in its branches.”
33 He told them
another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and
mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
44 “The kingdom of
heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in
his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is
like a merchant in search of fine pearls; 46 on finding one pearl of
great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
47 “Again, the
kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of
every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and
put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the
age. The angels will come out and
separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the
furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 “Have you
understood all this?” They answered,
“Yes.” 52 And [Jesus] said to
them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is
like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and
what is old.”
In the autumn of 2002 our younger son Owen began to play
rugby for Magee High School and for the Meraloma Club. He was the only one of our children who became
involved in organized sports, but Paula and I supported him in this new
endeavour. What made it even more joyful
for all of us was that Owen was good at the game and loved it.
When I was growing up in the United States, rugby was a
game played only at elite private boys’ schools. So, I had to learn the sport from the
sidelines. One of the first lessons I
had to learn is that rugby, ‘a ruffians’ game played by gentlemen’ --- and now ‘gentlewomen’
--- has no rules. Rugby has laws and it
is the role of the referee to interpret the laws as the game is played. For example, a player may be technically
off-side but, since his infraction did not impede the play of the other team,
the referee may not choose to blow the whistle and award a penalty. When a player is tackled, he or she must roll
and release the ball. Each referee seems
to have a different internal clock to determine whether the player has complied
with the law. Throughout a game, you
will hear the referee instructing the players, warning them and even thanking
them when they heed his warnings. Among
rugby players you will frequently hear someone say to her or his teammates, ‘Play
to the ref.’ In other words, ‘Don’t
complain. Learn quickly how the ref is
calling the game and play on.’
In the Judaism of Jesus’ day there was a Law --- the Law
of Moses --- found in the first five books of what we call the ‘Hebrew’
scriptures. And, as in our own time,
there were different approaches to how one followed the Law. Some Jews were what we might call ‘literalists’. For them what the Law said is what the Law
meant. Other Jews, including Jesus,
believed that what the Law said is not always what the Law meant. These Jews would ask questions such as ‘What
do the prophets say?’ or ‘What does the tradition of interpretation say?’
As you can well imagine, there could be very lively
debates about how a particular text was to be interpreted. For example, Ezra and Nehemiah condemn the
marriage of Jewish men to non-Jewish women.
Why? Because ‘Jewish-ness’ is
transmitted through the mother not the father.
But in the book of Esther, a non-Jewish woman marries a Jewish man. She is lauded for her faithfulness to her
Jewish mother-in-law and becomes the direct ancestor of the great Jewish kings
David and Solomon.
In Jesus’ time it was the role of what Matthew calls ‘scribes’
to interpret the Law to the common people.
Other translations use the phrases ‘legal expert’ (Common English Bible) or ‘teacher of the law’ (Revised English Bible) to describe the role of the ‘scribe’ in the
Jewish community. In a society where
religious law and civil law both blended and conflicted, you can well imagine
how important a role the scribe played.
But like all legal experts the scribes could become
obstacles to faithful life. No doubt
some scribes fell into the trap of believing that tradition is ‘the dead faith
of the living’ rather than ‘the living faith of the dead’. You and I have heard such voices in our own
lives of faith: ‘We’ve never done it that
way?’ or ‘We’ve always done it that way?’
And so, as Jesus travelled throughout the Jewish communities, he was
often opposed by the scribes because they perceived his message as ‘new’. And what Jesus asked them to consider was not
whether his message was ‘new’ but whether it was ‘true’.
And what is ‘truth’?
You have heard me say what I am about to say many times. I hope you will bear with me if I repeat
myself.
- Truth always does justice. Justice means that each and every creature of God is treated with dignity. Justice means that our societies are structured so that every child of God can become more fully the person that God has created her or him to be.
- Truth always loves mercy. Mercy means that ‘an eye for an eye’ and ‘a tooth for a tooth’ ends up with two partially-blind people who cannot enjoy a decent meal. Mercy means that laws must recognize that ‘circumstances alter cases’ --- one size does not fit all.
- Truth always walks humbly with God. Humility means that all of us have to come to the uncomfortable realization that we are not the centre of the universe. Humility means that my ‘wants’ cannot trump the ‘needs’ of others.
Truth is not carved in the stone of some chosen
past. We believe that Jesus is ‘the way,
the truth and the life’ (John 14.6) and that ‘[the Spirit of truth] will guide [us]
into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever
he hears, and he will declare to [us] the things that are to come’ [John
16.13] In every generation Christians
face the task of drawing out of the treasure of the good news of God in Christ ‘what
is new’ as we build on the foundation of ‘what is old’. What is ‘old’ is the heritage of faithful
ministry in the places where we have lived and worked for generations. What is ‘new’ is how we live justly,
mercifully and humbly as disciples of Jesus in the present.
So let us ‘play to the ref’. Let us listen to the voice of Jesus who
speaks to us in the Scriptures. Let us
attend to the voice of the Spirit who speaks through our prayers Let us listen to the voice of God who speaks
to us in all the works of creation. Play
on!
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