Bountiful – Br. Luke Ditewig

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Br. Luke Ditewig

Genesis 29:15-28
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Jesus teaches with images from everyday life, divine truth revealed in soil and seeds, wheat and weeds, yeast and bread, fish and nets. Though so small a seed, mustard grows into a large plant and then a tree. Hidden yeast infiltrates flour and water, making dough expand for bread. More than just size, these point to what is divinely possible. God may seem hidden or insignificant, but that does not mean God is not present or powerful. God is and will do far more than we now see to restore the world.[1]

Jesus invites us to be patient and to trust God’s hidden actions. The seed will eventually become a tree, spreading out and giving shade. Birds will come to nest in its branches. Like gardeners, be patient in planting and tending. Wait in hope for yield this summer and for the end, when all is verdant and bountiful.

When speaking of yeast, Jesus gives a ridiculous amount for one baker. This likely feeds hundreds of people, bread for everyone in town. The net catches every kind of fish, all included. It is hard to hear the binary of wicked and righteous with a blazing furnace. God invites repentance, change, and following, to live rightly with consequences and punishment in play. The furnace is a striking image. Jesus is the Great Fisher who makes the decisions.[2] Hold this gently with the mustard seed, yeast, and God writ large through Scripture.

God calls flawed people who keep failing, slowly changing and using them for good. Genesis tells the stories of Abraham and Sarah, their son Isaac, and of Hagar and Ishmael, of Isaac and Rebecca with their sons Jacob and Esau. Jacob wrestled from birth, coming from the womb gripping his brother’s ankle. Jacob shrewdly swapped Esau soup for the birthright by a sworn oath. With his mother’s help, Jacob deceived his nearly blind father by smell, wearing Esau’s clothing, giving food like Esau cooked, and covering his smooth arms with animal skins to imitate his brother’s hairy arms. Jacob wrestled away Esau’s blessing from their father.

Esau wanted to kill him. Jacob’s parents sent him off to Laban to find a wife. As we heard today, Jacob fell in love with Rachel and worked for Laban seven years to marry her. After the feast, Laban sent his other daughter Leah in to sleep with Jacob on the wedding bed. Laban deceived Jacob the deceiver with sight and touch.[3] Jacob worked another seven years, marrying both Rachel and Leah. Both bore sons with Jacob, twelve in total, and a daughter. God gave Jacob a new name: Israel.

God worked with and through Jacob and his deceit and the enmity in his fraught and frail family to create a larger people to – as promised to Abraham – bless the whole world. The kingdom of heaven is expansive, reaching beyond our categories, beyond expectation, using us and our families with all frailty and foibles, baggage and brokenness.

We are clearly in need. God comes to save. We are saved by grace, not by what we do but by what God does for us. Paul encourages us, saying that amid any suffering or challenge, nothing can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:26-39).

Do God’s actions seem hidden or insignificant for you today, given the state of the world, given the state of your life, wounds, and family? Like seeds and yeast, God is present, active, and with great possibility. Hope in God, from whom more will be revealed.

When Jesus told of the mustard tree with birds on its branches making nests, many who first heard it would likely remember something similar from the prophets. Isaiah and Ezekiel foretold of a “World Tree” to bless everyone.[4] Isaiah said: “In days to come Jacob shall take root; Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit” (Isaiah 27:6). Ezekiel said: “Under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind” (Ezekiel 17:23).

Every kind is protected and nourished under this tree. Yeast into dough, not just for a village but a “cosmic loaf” for all people.[5] God promised Abraham his offspring would bless the entire world. Jesus said he would be lifted up to draw all the world to himself.

If God seems hidden or with actions small and seemingly insignificant, first pray your pain. Do not deny suffering. The Spirit helps us in our weakness, groaning with and for us. Hold onto hope. God loves us and is at work in more than we can see or imagine. Like every kind of bird nesting on branches of a huge tree. Like bountiful bread for everyone to eat. Like a net catching all fish. As a king in a manger, on a donkey, and on a cross, God comes on a slant, surprising and subversive, Love from whom we shall not be separated. Amen.