Seeing through the mist

 

Our family had the chance this past July to spend an afternoon at Niagara Falls, and so we did what thousands of tourists do every year, we boarded the Maid of the Mist tour boat and cruised right up beneath the falls. Those of you who have been on it know that when it circles in right beneath Horseshoe Falls, you are surrounded by falling water. It is an awesome sight. It’s hard to put into words the power of the water that roars over the falls.

As you get right up close you occasionally lose sight of the falls because there is so much mist hanging in the air. It’s an odd sensation, knowing that the immense power of the Great Lakes is right there in front of you, and yet for a moment or two, you can’t even see it through the spray.

As we headed back to the dock two thoughts crossed my mind. The first is that the water that winds its way down the Devil Track, Flute Reed and Poplar Rivers eventually goes over those falls. Streams that can be waded across during the summer months join with countless others to create a force that is powerful beyond description.

The other thought that struck me is how often we come close to the infinite power of God without seeing through the mist of our own perceptions and prejudices. We expect God to be revealed to us at the time and place of our own choosing, and so we simply fail to see the radical nature of God’s love at work in our lives.

Jesus knew that his disciples and the crowds pressing in around him were unable on their own to envision what the kingdom of God is like, even though he was living it out right in front of them.

They were so close, and yet they couldn’t see. And so Jesus shared stories with them to help them to understand what the kingdom of God is all about. He described his kingdom in ways that they could understand. He used images from everyday life to challenge their faith.

One of my favorite images is the parable of the mustard seed. A man takes a tiny mustard seed and sows it in his field. It becomes a tree so big that the birds come and make nests in it. Hmmm…that’s nice. God’s kingdom starts out small, but it is really much bigger than it seems.

That’s how we usually approach this, but there is more to this parable than that. We are accustomed to hearing about the mustard seed through the lens of our own culture, and so we assume that it is simply a neat little metaphor for our personal faith.

But if we only approach it this way we miss something quite extraordinary. This parable just might be one of Jesus’ most radical proclamations. When Jesus spoke these words, his listeners would have heard this as a challenge to God’s covenant with them. Sowing a weed into a field meant for crops would have been a violation of the law found in Leviticus, which says, “…You shall not sow your fields with two kinds of seed…” To us this seems rather archaic, but the intent of the law found in Leviticus is to honor the order of creation. Jesus is challenging his listeners, and us, by sharing this story.

He’s proclaiming that the kingdom of God, which is breaking into this world through him, transcends everything that has come before. A new way of living out God’s creation is at hand. His sacrifice, his death, his resurrection will bring new life into this broken world. In this new kingdom mustard plants are welcome to grow alongside the crops that have been planted. Those who live outside of the norm…lepers, sinners, foreigners, tax collectors and prisoners are welcome. The kingdom of heaven is about everyone, even those who have always been looked down on and despised.

We maybe don’t see this little parable as shocking, but we should at least see it as challenging. This challenges us to widen our view of who is invited to be a part of God’s kingdom. Who are the foreigners of our day? Who are the lepers? Who are the outsiders? Who are the tiny seeds who will grow and become a part of the kingdom that continues to unfold around us?

God’s kingdom has broken into this world through Jesus, and it isn’t anything like what we might imagine it to be. It is new, and wonderful, and precious, and challenging. It is the heart of the gospel we are invited to share everywhere our voices and hands can reach.

Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month’s contributor is Pastor Tom Murray of the Lutsen Lutheran and Zion Lutheran Church of Finland.