THE SECRET OF RULING IN THE
Beloved people of God, grace and
peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus the
Christ.
Once upon a time there was a kingdom
ruled by a wise and beloved king.
One day he called his four daughters together and told them he was
leaving on a pilgrimage to learn more about God. “I wish to devote myself to prayer,” he
said, “and I will be gone for a long
time.”
They pleaded with him not to
leave. They asked, “How will we be able to rule the kingdom without you?” The king smile and responded, “I have confidence that you will rule well.
I want to give each of you a gift that will help teach you the secret of
rule.” He asked them each to
extend an open hand. He placed a
single grain of rice in each of their palms. Then he hugged them and took his
leave.
The oldest daughter tied a golden
thread around her grain of rice and placed it in a crystal box by her bed. Each day when she woke up and each night
when she went to sleep she looked at it.
The second daughter put her grain of
rice in a stout wooden box that locked and then slid the box under her
bed.
The third daughter, a practical
type, thought to herself, “This grain of
rice is not different from any other grain of rice.” So she simply disposed of
it.
The fourth daughter took her grain
of rice to her room and began to ponder the significance of this seemingly
insignificant gift. What was the
purpose of this gift from her wise father?
She pondered for a week, then a month. After nearly a year the meaning of the
gift finally came to her.
It was several years before their
father returned. He looked older
and had a full beard. But his eyes
sparkled with illumination. His
pilgrimage had blessed him with a deeper sense of the presence of God. He greeted his daughters and asked to
see the gifts he had left them.
The oldest daughter brought the
crystal box with the grain with a golden thread tied around it. “I looked at it every day to remind me of
you,” she said. The king
thanked her and accepted the box.
The second daughter brought her
wooden box with the grain inside.
“I have kept your gift secure
under my bed.” The king thanked
her and accepted the box.
The third daughter rushed to the
kitchen, found a grain of rice, and presented it to him. The king thanked her and accepted the
grain.
Finally the fourth daughter stepped
forward. “I do not have the grain of rice you gave
me,” she said. “What did you do with it?” he
asked.
She explained, “For nearly a year I pondered the
significance of your gift. I realized the grain was a seed, so I planted it in
the ground. It grew, and I harvested seed from it. Then I kept on harvesting and
planting each year. Come, Father, and see the
results.”
They went to a window high in the
palace and looked at a crop of rice as far as the eye could see. There was enough food to feed the entire
kingdom. The king took off his
golden crown and placed it on her head, saying, “You have learned the secret of rule.” From that day forward she ruled the
kingdom wisely and well.[1]
Our gospel reading from Matthew
contains six parables that Jesus uses to teach his followers the secret of rule
in the
The “Parable of the Mustard Seed”
teaches a secret of ruling in the kingdom similar to the secret the fourth
daughter learned from the grain of rice her father gave her. The smallest seed can yield a bountiful
harvest. Consider the small
beginnings of the Christian faith.
Look at the harvest that has grown from the seeds sown by an itinerant
preacher and a small band of disciples in a rather insignificant corner of the
The “Parable of the Yeast” teaches
of the leavening effect of the
In the “Parable of the Treasure
Hidden in a Field” Jesus teaches us of the unsurpassed value of the
The “Parable of the Pearl of Great
Value” teaches a similar point.
However, here the merchant does not make a surprising discovery. Instead, he seeks out the valuable
pearl; and when he finds it, he sells all to purchase it. No sacrifice is too great to obtain the
pearl of the
The “Parable of the Net” is a
difficult one. What is all this
talk of a “furnace of fire” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth”? This indicates that there will be a
judgment at the end of the age. But
notice that this judgment is not ours to make. The angels will come and do the judging,
and the judgment will not happen until the end. Here and now, prior to the end, it is
our job to cast out our nets and gather people of all kinds. One of the secrets of the kingdom is
that it is not obvious to us who is in and who is out. It is our job to gather people in; it is
God’s job to do the judging.
The final parable in Matthew 13
teaches a lesson in what means to be a scribe of the kingdom. Jesus compares such a scribe to a
householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. Jesus did not come into the world to
throw out or do away with the Jewish religious tradition. He himself was a Jew. He was sent to fulfill the law and the
prophets. Jesus combined the best
of his religious tradition with new insights prompted by the Spirit of God to do
the work of the kingdom in his time and place. That is precisely what the followers of
Jesus have been called to do ever since.
To hold on slavishly to our past is to make an idol out of our past. To throw out the past in favor of the
new is to make an idol out of the new.
To bring out of our treasure the best of what is new and what is old is
to be faithful to the work of the kingdom.
Teddy Roosevelt once counseled, “Do what you can, with what you have, where
you are.” Hattie Williams, who
ministered to teenage mothers in one of the toughest neighborhoods in
In Jesus’ name,
AMEN.