Matthew 13:31-33; 44-46

31He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32it 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.”

33He 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 a man found and reburied; 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.

I was raised in an ambitious family, maybe some of you can relate.

My father was a high school science teacher, so he had to take continuing education classes to keep his teaching license current, as many of us do in professional careers, so he quietly earned a Masters Degree over the course of several years of continuing education.  My grandmother was thrilled that he got his masters degree! She really was!  But she immediately started encouraging him to get his PHD.  

My grandmother was very proud of my father.  She herself only had a high school diploma, and the fact that her son went to college at all was something she was soooo proud of, but she was always striving for the next bigger thing.

And I felt this growing up.

My father passed this sense of pressure on to me.

That doing my best was never enough.

The expectation is excellence and anything less may as well be nothing at all.

It wasn’t until I was in Seminary that I heard the phrase, “C’s get degrees,”

and this was a whole new concept for me!

Maybe you totally understand the phrase, “C’s get degrees,” but for me that phrase was mind bending!

I mean, I once got a talking to for getting one A- instead of all straight A’s!

So, in case you also grew up in an ambitious home the concept behind “C’s get degrees” is this:

Once you have your degree, nobody actually looks at your grades.  The requirement for the job is the degree, not the grade point average.  So especially if you are an adult college student with a full time job and a family, your goal is to balance your priorities –  your family, your work, your home, your health, and your degree.  So it’s better to get C’s than to miss out on your children’s childhoods in the pursuit of straight A’s.

Because C’s get degrees and in the end, the degree is the goal, not the grade point average.

I’m still processing this idea that C’s get degrees.  

It’s very new to me.

So I settled for grades in the low 90’s, rather than making sure I did perfect work for the MBA program I’m doing to help us build affordable housing.

Baby steps, for this recovering perfectionist!

Because I’m trying see the value in balance and imperfection reading these parables hit differently for me this week.

I’ve always read these parables of small things –

-A seed,

-The even smaller micro-organism of yeast

-A pearl 

-Buying a whole field to get what is buried in just one small part of it.

I’ve always read these parables of small things with the idea that God can turn something small into something big.

The mustard seed turns into a decent sized bush.

Yeast micro-organisms multiply to make many loaves of sourdough bread.

It’s worth it to sacrifice everything for something greater than ourselves – that is, the pearl and the treasure.

And I think those perspectives are still true.

But this week I’m seeing another side to these parables.

The idea that small things matter.

The idea that sometimes all we have to give is, not much.

Sometimes we feel powerless to help the people we love and all we can do is plant one seed, one mustard grain of hope into their hurting heart and hope that it will take root.

And by the way, mustard seeds are not the smallest seeds out there!

And mustard bushes do not grow into trees.  

There is no mythical middle eastern mustard tree!

Jesus was speaking metaphorically and using exaggeration.

This week I’m seeing in Jesus’ metaphorical exaggeration the idea that a small-ish seed of hope can grow into something that not only saves the life of our loved one, but also grows into our loved one being able to save the lives of others — that other birds can find shelter in what has grown from that seed of hope.

This week, I’m thinking of yeast as one small voice who shouts a message of justice into the void, and one by one other small voices take up the shouts until the halls of power can no longer afford to not listen – because the message of justice has spread like yeast through bread dough of popular thought.

That first voice often feels lost and alone and too small to make a difference for quite some time before the call for justice reaches critical mass.

Sometimes we feel like we have given everything, absolutely everything we have, for a dream that turns out to be mostly dirt.  

Sometimes we feel like we have nothing left to give and we don’t even remember where that so-called treasure is buried.  But it’s still there.  And often, what we thought was the treasure, is really just seed money for what we will do with the field.

And sometimes what matters most is not the whole pearl company.

Sometimes what matters most is one small precious thing.

One person.

One relationship.

One life changed.

One life saved, and restored to wholeness.

Yes.  God can do Great Big Things with whatever small things we have to offer.

But sometimes we need to be reminded that the value of small things is not just in their ability to become bigger.

The small things matter for their own sake.

You matter for your own sake.

God loves us like a mother loves her newborn baby.

Not because the baby is perfect – although all babies are perfect, no matter what.

The mother loves the baby because the baby is hers.

God loves us because we are God’s.

God loves us just because.

Numbers 27:1-11

Then the daughters of Zelophehad came forward. Zelophehad was son of Hepher son of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, of the clans of Manasseh, son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. 2 They stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders, and all the congregation, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying, 3 “Our father died in the wilderness; he was not among the congregation of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the congregation of Korah but died for his own sin, and he had no sons. 4 Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father’s brothers.”

5 Moses brought their case before the Lord. 6 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 7 “The daughters of Zelophehad are right in what they are saying; you shall indeed let them possess an inheritance among their father’s brothers and pass the inheritance of their father on to them. 8 You shall also speak to the Israelites, saying: If a man dies and has no son, then you shall pass his inheritance on to his daughter. 9 If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. 10 If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. 11 And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the nearest kinsman of his clan, and he shall possess it. It shall be for the Israelites a statute and ordinance, as the Lord commanded Moses.”

The story we just read, about the daughters of Zelophehad is not one I have preached on before.  It’s a story that is a part of the Camp curriculum at our Methodist camps this year.

A story meant to help students understand that God is with us when we need to advocate for our own justice.  The daughters of Zelophehad advocated for their inheritance and God let Moses know the daughters were right.  So we teach our campers that they should also advocate for themselves because God is a God of justice.

But it’s also a story that has a whole lot of Biblical, theological and Cultural Context!

What happened before this story is that there was a rebellion against Moses that was called “the Congregation of Korah.” So after the rebellion was put down, the families of the rebels were disinherited and cast out from the people of Israel.

Zelophehad was related to Korah, but Zelophehad died in the wilderness before the whole rebellion thing, so his daughters were fighting not just for their inheritance, but for their place in the Israelite community.  As 4 women, where would they go?  Where would their children go?

Back to Egypt?  

And as women they had no right of inheritance under the usual rules of the time,  so if they were cast out, they would be cast out with nothing.  No sheep, no tent, no cart, no clothes but what was in their backs.

Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah were fighting for their lives, their family, and their citizenship.

That’s what’s going on in the story.

There’s also some Biblical context you need to understand – Biblical, as in, understanding how the Bible was written.

Only one part of the Bible was carved in stone by the hand of God.  Any guesses as to what that part is?

The 10 commandments.

Everything else in the Bible was written and edited and edited and copied and copied and translated and translated again and again by people.

The Bible is mostly, except for the 10 commandments, humans talking about their experience of God – what we call oral tradition, then other people writing about what those humans talked about, often several generations later.  There was no eye witnesses news following Moses around!

Nobody was writing this story down as it happened.  Especially stories that are this old.  So think of this like a story told by your Great Aunt about her Grandmother.  It’s mostly true but told from your Auntie’s perspective, not her Great Grandmother’s perspective.

There’s also a theological context in play here.

Then as now people’s religious beliefs and theology are shaped by our culture and the religious beliefs of the surrounding cultures.

A common belief in many religions and cultures at the time was that if something bad happened to you God was probably punishing you.

We see this belief in divine punishment in this story in verse 3 where the daughters are basing their claim to their inheritance on their father having “died for his own sin.”

This is why it is important for us to take the Bible seriously, not literally.

Here’s how I explained this to the kids at camp:

There are things in the Bible that are not correct theology.

We know they are not correct theology because Jesus talked about a lot of these wrong ideas when He was here on earth.

The disciples asked Jesus this question in the gospel of John chapter 9 verse 3, when they saw a blind man.  They asked,

“Who sinned this man or his parents?”

Jesus responded, “neither this man nor his parents sinned.”

Because we believe that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One God, with one personality, what Jesus says is what God says.

So the idea that Zelophehad “died for his own sin,” is not God’s opinion.  It’s the common belief of the culture they lived in at the time.

This actually happens a lot in the Bible.  Like when Abraham was convinced that God wanted Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac.  Most of the religions in the area practiced child sacrifice and Abraham’s relationship with God was kinda new, so Abraham assumed that God was like all the other gods.  So God has to substitute a ram to talk Abraham out of sacrificing his son.

We deal with this issue today, because people assume that 

our culture is God’s culture,

our values are God’s values, 

our laws are God’s laws.

So just as the people of the Exodus assumed that women could not inherit and Zelophehad died for his sins, 

We also assume that God shares our social norms.

But God’s Mercy and God’s Justice are often much more inclusive and expansive than we are.

God made sure that Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah’s names were remembered, not just Zelophehad’s name.

God convinced Moses that these women mattered at a time when women didn’t matter.

And God made sure that Moses knew the value of women because Moses owed his life to his sister, his mother, her midwives and Pharaoh’s daughter who adopted him.

We were using this story at Camp to teach the campers to be brave and speak out for justice even when it’s not popular and even when people tell you that justice is against the rules.

And I witnessed many beautiful examples of students advocating for one another and for themselves at camp.

One of our autistic campers was really frustrated by the speed at which we were learning the music for the production we put in at the end of the week and shouted,

I don’t know where the *fork* I am in this music!

She didn’t say “fork”

And this is where it’s important to realize that sometimes we play the part of Moses.

Sara, the choir director, who is school choir director and is very good at her job,

Sara didn’t discipline that camper for saying “fork”

Sara instead took a deep breath, and consulted with Spirit – because it’s easy to feel insecure when someone is demanding justice from you.

Because, If they have to demand justice from you, then maybe you did something wrong.  And it doesn’t feel good to have to admit that you might have done harm.

A lot of people would just tell that camper to be quiet and keep rehearsing and they will get it soon enough.

But Sara did a Moses.

Sara consulted with God and then she asked if others were struggling with the song, and a lot of us raised our hands, including me.

So Sara changed her plan of teaching.  Like Moses changed the rules.

Because sometimes we are in the position of Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah and we need to advocate for our own justice.

And sometimes we are in the position of Moses and we need to remember that God’s grace also applies to us when we are being unjust.

A deep breath, a pause, a hasty prayer of “Help me Jesus,” is sometimes all we need to ground ourselves in God’s grace.  

God’s grace for the person seeking justice and God’s grace for ourselves when we have made a mistake.

Amos 5:21-24 NRSVUE

I hate, I despise your festivals,

    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

    I will not accept them,

and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals

    I will not look upon.

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;

    I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

24 But let justice roll down like water

    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

I’ve been telling people lately that I’ve entered my Amos Era.

And I’m using the word “Era” in the same way that Tailor Swift uses the word “Era.”  As a label for the seasons of one’s creative life.

Because Church has always been a creative endeavor for me.

There’s a lot of art in the mid-century-modern-institutional era of Church that has been my whole experience of Church.

The art of architecture.

The art of stained glass.

The art of banner making and worship decorating.

And of course, the art of music.

The line and curve of melody.

The thickness or nakedness of chord structure.

Rhythms that mimic or subvert the spoken word.

And the way you can feel the base line of an organ all the way through your bones when the organist pulls out all the stops on Easter morning.

I worked for 23 years as a Church musician.  

Trying to coax people into letting down their guard enough to listen to God.

And my younger years were in the midst of the Worship Wars.

So churches would hire me to create a “contemporary” service.

To bring in the “younger people.”

I worked hard to create “excellent worship experiences” in both traditional and contemporary styles of worship.

And I typically produced an 11% increase in worship attendance within the first year…but that was usually due to members attending more frequently because worship was better.

But excellent worship does not grow the church if the members don’t invite anyone.

And excellent worship does not retain young families when the children’s and youth ministries are… not good.

And excellent worship does not disciple people into being followers of Jesus.  

In fact, excellent worship runs the risk of creating fans of Jesus who perceive the church as a membership organization that they belong to in order to receive services – like membership in a yacht club.

And when people start to think that the Church exists to provide for their preferences.

They can lose sight of Jesus’ teachings that the Church is a Community of the Beloved whose calling is to love our neighbors as our selves.

So people tried to fix that problem with “Discipleship Systems,”  with catchy names like Alpha, or the Purpose Driven Life.

The idea being that if you require people to take these classes in order to be a member and receive all the “benefits” of membership, then we can turn “consumers” into disciples.  And the church will continue to grow in excellence as well as depth.

There’s even a church growth book called, “Deep and Wide,” purporting to teach you how to attract the masses while also making disciples.

But the problem with ALL of this, is that it reduces individual people – beloved children of God into nickels and noses.

It reduces real lives into numbers on a spread sheet that defines the professional self-worth of a Pastor.

And soon enough preserving those numbers becomes more important than having hard conversations.

Preserving those numbers provokes pastors, who should know better, to preach messages that are more popular than prophetic.

Preserving those numbers creates a power dynamic where the opinions of  those who are rich in this world start to matter more than caring for the “Least of These,” as Jesus described those most in need of care in Matthew 25: 31-46.

The worship wars were never about worship.

The worship wars were about whose preferences should be centered on Sunday morning.

The worship wars were about trying to keep those numbers up.

The worship wars had nothing to do with the practice of neighbor-love.

The worship wars were all about nickels and noses.

It was all about attendance as a measure of success.

But what does it profit the mid-century-modern-institutional-church to have packed 400 people into the church on Sundays in the 1960’s, 

but to have lost the next 2 generations of our children… 

because we prioritized GOING to Church on Sundays, 

instead of BEING the church every day of the week.

What younger people say to me, especially those who were raised in conservative churches who embraced “contemporary” worship,

 is that they associate that style of worship with their church trauma.

Or that they loved the music, because there aren’t many places where people gather to make music together in our culture.

What they have told me is that they turned away from the church because the people who taught them to love their neighbors also told them not to love their gay neighbors their homeless neighbors. Their immigrant neighbors. Their divorced neighbors, their neighbors of color. Basically love your neighbor with a great, big huge asterisk for all the exceptions of people who didn’t deserve to be loved according to them. 

So they stopped going to church because churches were more concerned about the quality of our worship than the quality of our love.

Essentially I  hear young people say:

I hate, I despise your festivals,

    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;

    I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

Because you talk about justice in your churches, but you don’t practice justice.

Which was hard to hear.

So hard to hear.

Because I spent decades of my life crafting worship and discipleship  programs and next gen ministries.

But while the ring of truth can be hard to hear,

 it’s even harder to ignore.

So something began to shift inside of me.

Spirit whispered to me about how I spend my time. 

And excellent worship design takes time and resources and the skills of other people and evaluation to see how the community experienced the experience…

And Spirit began to whisper that maybe my time was better spent working to turn on the faucets of justice than working on creating festival worship and hiring harpists.

But streaming righteousness is not showy work.

Streaming righteousness looks like months of conversations with various departments within Portland Police Department to finally, hopefully help our local police understand that we want them to move our local drug dealers slash pimps out of the Montavilla neighborhood because they are victimizing both unhoused and housed folks in our neighborhood!

Streaming Righteousness looks like our Board sitting down with Nathan and listening to his real experience dealing with unhoused folks on our property and reassuring him that we would rather come to church and see a mess in the parking lot, than put him in harms way by expecting him to evict people from our porch by himself.

Streaming Righteousness looks like y’all deciding to start a food pantry for Haven Dinner folks and any other members of our church who are struggling with the price of groceries right now.

Streaming Righteousness looks like combing through mountains of paperwork line by line by line so that we get this affordable housing project right.

Keeping the rivers of justice and the streams of righteousness flowing all week long means that we are extra grateful to Barton and David and Clarice for keeping worship organized because we need our Sunday gatherings to be a pit stop for our busy weeks full of ministry!

We need to sing together.

To pray together.

To re-ground ourselves in the Word together.

To take communion together.

To drink coffee and eat cookies together.

Because keeping the waters of compassion flowing is hard work.

So I’m in my Amos Era.

Not because I think that worship doesn’t matter for the people of God.

But because worship doesn’t matter the most to God.

Because I don’t think God cares how beautiful our music is.

I think God cares how beautiful our love is.

Music and worship are God’s gifts to us.

Not our gifts to God.

Our gift to God is our whole lives spent trying to love our neighbors.

Worship is God reminding us that we are loved.

And we don’t need harps 

or 200 person audition only choirs, 

or fantastic decor.

Mostly, we need someone who is happy to see us every time we’re here.

Because belonging to a community where you are loved and accepted is the beginning of justice.