Jesus The Jester #12 | “Buy the Farm”

0:00 This fall, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church has been engaged in a study of the biblical parables. From the get-go, starting with an actual clown here in the sanctuary, don't worry, I didn't invite Petey back for today, we have explored a basic premise. In the parables, Jesus acts the part of a jester. With a smile, he pokes at conventional wisdom. He teases us. He questions. He provokes. He sketches new vistas, new ways for us to picture ourselves and our work and our relationships.

0:57 And Jesus does this by telling stories. Make you think stories. Change your life stories. Today we reach the end of our parable study. Today we celebrate Thanksgiving. We focus on gratitude. we make promises to support God's work in the world. We sing of grain brought safely in from the fields and the abundance of harvest. As we count our blessings this morning, there's time for us to consider one last parable. It's a short one, thematically, I think, appropriate to the day. So listen carefully, my friends, for God's word as it echoes from Matthew chapter 13, the 44th verse.

2:02 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. This is the word of God for you, the people of God. Thanks be to God.

2:35 This parable is brief. Blink and you'll miss it. And yet for all its brevity, this snapshot from the good book is a condensed version of what happens whenever Jesus pulls up a chair and starts to tell us a story. God's jester loves to lean in and describe the realm of God. As he talks, Christ pulls out a piece of charcoal and starts to draw a map for the human heart, on the human heart. What sort of map? Well, listen again to our Lord's words. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

3:32 Over the last 12 weeks, we may have noticed a recurring theme in the parables. Again and again, Jesus compares the realm of God to something lost, something mysterious, something hidden. It's an effective storytelling technique. It wakes us up. It tickles our curiosity, draws us in. What's that, Jesus? Something's been lost? It's a treasure? What kind of treasure are we talking about? How did it get lost? Was it pirates? Are we talking about a secret stash left by robbers and thieves? Or perhaps a noble figure, a duchess, buried a box of jewels in the corner of a field under a heart-shaped stone. Perhaps the treasure was her contingency plan, a lifeline in case she needed to skip town.

4:40 Jesus baits the hook of this parable like an adventure novel. Something valuable has been concealed. Something precious has been lost. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. We cannot resist the juster's bait. What kind of treasure are we talking about? What is this precious thing? And the parable hides the answer to that question in plain sight. Jesus has already told us from the get-go, very first words, what the treasure is. The lost treasure is the realm of God. And when we realize this, the story starts to sizzle a little bit. There's a mystery here.

5:35 How did the kingdom of heaven go missing? Who misplaced the realm of God? Is it our fault? Have we let the holy slip away? Have we lost our capacity for wonder? Are we slowly starving our souls, losing touch with a grand vision, settling for quick dopamine hits manufactured for us by algorithms?

6:03 Have we misplaced God's plans for humanity, the hopes heaven holds for us? It was just here, sitting on my desk. honey, I've lost my sacred vision. I've been looking all over for my realm of God map and I can't seem to find it. This past week I took a few days and did something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I attended a class in Berea, Kentucky at the Pinecroft Woodworking School with my friend, the Reverend Tom R. Two old preachers we spent our days tapping away with mallets and chisels. In the evening, we bemoaned sore shoulders and talked life and faith into the wee hours. We laughed at and lamented the state of the world and the state of our aging selves.

7:08 It was food for my soul. During the days, we went about our tasks at the Pinecroft School, shaping cherry boards with saws and spokeshaves, trying to make a small shaker-style cabinet. Our instructor had music playing in the shop. Whenever the cacophony of six people trying to fit finicky dovetail joints together died down, a playlist of popular music drifted through the air. It gave rhythm to our work. There were songs by the Avett Brothers and the Indigo Girls by Elton John, the Beatles, Tom Petty, God bless them. As I listened and the week rolled along, I noticed something. Maybe you've noticed it too.

8:05 A great many of our popular songs, the soundtracks that play in the background of our lives, tell the story of someone searching. Searching for meaning. Searching for love. Searching for direction. Searching for a better self. One of the songs in the Pinecroft playlist was by the Irish rock band U2. In it, lead singer Bono wraps his raspy voice around these poignant words. I have climbed highest mountains. I have run through the fields only to be with you, only to be with you. I've run, I've crawled, I've scaled these city walls, these city walls, only to be with you.

9:03 But I still haven't found what I'm looking for. but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field maybe jesus is onto something in this mini donut of a parable to be human is to search it's to seek after a longed for something a thing that will fill the void in our hearts a thing that will soothe the ache in our souls. We look and we look and we look for a treasure. Is this it? Is this? How about this?

9:56 My preaching professor, William Meal, once told me that as a young man, he dreamed of owning and driving a Corvette convertible. And then one day, he was fortunate enough, he received some inheritance, he was fortunate enough to buy a used powder blue Corvette. He drove away from the dealership with the top down, the wind in his hair, and enjoying the ride he pictured how fine he must look. And at that very moment a thought floated through his head, you know, I might be happier with a red one. We search and sometimes we find that special thing, but how long does it satisfy?

10:54 Songwriters, life's lyricists, they get this. Bono gets this. The painful part of being human is that we search and we search and yet we still haven't found what we're looking for. So the startling thing in today's parable is that it describes someone getting off this hamster wheel. It describes a moment when someone finds a treasure that actually sates his hungering soul. His heart breaks out in song. Eureka! I found it! This is it! And this man goes all in. He pushes his entire pile of chips to the center of the table. He buys the farm. The phrase, by the farm, comes to us, historians say, from the 1940s. It comes from the lingo of American and British military personnel.

11:59 Although, as is often the case with a good idiom, this phrase has more than one origin story. Some point to military accounts of soldiers who were killed in combat, and at the point of their death, the government paid a benefit to that soldier's family. This payment allowed the deceased veteran's family to pay off their debt. Corporal McKenzie's death literally bought the farm for his king. Other historians point out that the phrase buy the farm was also used by soldiers who simply wanted to retire to step back from the world of professional soldiering to purchase a plot of land I'm going to settle down embrace a quieter, simpler life buy that farm these two potential backstories share common elements when soldiers speak of buying the farm they evoke one the nearness of death and two the power of human dreams what if there were for me for my loved ones a blessing a life beyond fighting a life of peace.

13:30 What if I were to buy the farm? life's fragility has a way of focusing the human heart doesn't it i only have so much time on this planet what do i want to do who do i want to be what do i want to pursue what will fill me what will satisfy me what am i looking for and so it's encouraging then in today's parable to hear tale of a person who actually finds their heart's desire. And this fellow, he responds quickly, instinctively, immediately. He buys the farm. He sells all that he has to purchase a holy parcel of land to secure a treasure. He sells everything. It's an intense, possibly abrupt response. You sure about this, buddy?

14:30 I mean, maybe you'd rather have a red one. Going all in doesn't seem like a good investment strategy. It's not prudent. Sell everything? And as these words hang in the air in the sanctuary, some of you might realize that some annoying preacher has picked this parable for Pledge Sunday. Is there a sucker punch in this parable? Sell everything. Buy yourself a slice of heaven while you still can. It's right there in black and white. Cue the choir. Pass the plates. Is that what Jesus the jester has in mind? Is that what God wants? Does the Holy One really expect us to throw our entire lives in the offering plate?

15:25 Well, our faith responds yes and no. Let's start with the no. this parable doesn't actually say anything about God's expectations. There's no finger wagging in this story. Sell everything and get yourself some God or else. That's not the vibe. There's no scolding here. There's no shame. Instead, Jesus wants to notice that the thing, the one thing motivating the man to buy the farm is joy. In his joy, Jesus says, the man goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. This tiny parable revolves around, centers on, lifts up human joy.

16:31 Now, joy is a tricky thing. We've talked about this here before. Joy is not simply happiness on steroids. Joy is not frivolous optimism. Joy is not even the opposite of suffering. Instead, joy is a stubborn form of human resilience. It's a perspective that allows people to stand strong in the midst of suffering, hardship, cruelty. Swiss theologian Karl Barth described joy as God's continual, defiant nevertheless. all kinds of bad stuff happens nevertheless God is good in spite of everything in spite of storms and wars in spite of cancer and bouts of depression God is still God and God is still good in spite of everything God loves us with abandon nevertheless Nevertheless, nevertheless, God can be glimpsed in the most surprising places, tending to the hurts of the world.

17:54 Unspotting God at work, unexpectedly showing up in some random cornfield, our hearts fill with joy. We exclaim, I finally found what I've been looking for. We push our chips to the center of the table. Our entire being vibrates. Something inside us whispers, it doesn't get any better than this. It doesn't get any better than a bold nevertheless spoken in the face of all that is broken and wrong. This will do. This satisfies. This is enough. More than enough. Heaven has seeded the world with treasure. These treasures spur our souls, speed our actions. After all, time is short, life is short, much too short to waste a minute not pursuing joy. It's time, says the parable, to buy the farm.

18:55 is the jester offering us solid advice here is all this true are there really treasures out there in the fields of the lord are there really pockets of deep joy all around us just just waiting to be found I have a right-ended. Here's what I know. Here's my testimony. As this church community goes about its faithful work week after week, I am personally blessed to witness people buying the farm all the doggone time. In this place, people put their creative energies and personal resources to work on behalf of the good. They embrace joy. They say nevertheless in the face of suffering and meanness and brokenness.

20:01 I think we have time for two quick stories, two stories, and then we'll have our pledge processional. At our senior staff retreat earlier this fall, I asked my colleagues to tell me about places in the life of this church that in recent months have stirred up joy in them. The team told story after story that lifted my heart. I'm so very proud of the staff that you all support. I'm proud of the good work they do.

20:43 I'm proud of the way that they care about you. I'm proud of the keen and grace-filled perspectives that they bring to this place. During our time of sharing, Dr. Ryan Jackson related the story of choir member, soprano Rachel Michael. and her quest to run the New York Marathon. A breast cancer survivor, Rachel ran the marathon for other survivors in her network of care. On race day, along Rachel's left arm, she listed the names of all the other women, all the other survivors that she was running for. And Ryan went on to describe how incredibly moved he was to watch Rachel lift her arm to a camera early in the race at mile marker number two, and to see there his mother's name, Nancy.

21:52 Rachel's display of solidarity, her generosity of spirit and simple human kindness, Ryan explained, washed through him with deep joy. My second story comes from all the clergy, really, but mostly from Reverend Werner Ramirez.

22:21 I offer you this behind-the-scenes peek at his work with Thanksgiving, because it's because of you, you and your generous support for this church, that stories like this are not only possible, but actually sort of common. A few months ago, the clergy at FAPC became acquainted with an immigrant woman who came to this country about 10 years ago. She was pregnant. No father was in the picture. Not knowing where to turn, this young woman walked through the side door of this church. I should tell you that to this day we have no idea what her official immigration status is. We never asked. We figure Jesus didn't ask the disciples to check passports in Galilee before ministering to people in need. and that in fact both Christ and the good book in general have a rather expansive understanding of what it means to belong to the kingdom of heaven, to be a child of God.

23:32 So we just went to work. We extended on your behalf a helping hand to this young woman. Let's call her Daisy as she navigated her pregnancy. At one point, Werner asked Daisy if she had a baby registry. She responded, what's that? So we got busy ordering a stroller, a high chair, blankets, diapers, toys, all sorts of supplies. As her due date approached, Daisy began asking the clergy a lot of questions about how to prepare for the birth. As you can imagine, I was really good at answering those questions. Even as she went into labor a little over a month ago, the questions continued. And it was at that point that Werner texted the clergy, I think he said we should get Daisy a midwife and we concurred.

24:36 So the good pastor reached out to Dulas en Español, a collective of midwives that Werner simply describes as angels. immediately the doulas en español sent out an alert to see if anybody could take the case and a young midwife named elizabeth responded elizabeth called daisy and then headed straight to the hospital soon after werner who was riding on the subway received a text a text from daisy that left his eyes leaking tears of joy on the 7 train. The text said, Elizabeth's coming, and she's going to hold my hand.

25:24 Nine hours later, Daisy welcomed a healthy baby girl. Later that week, as Werner relayed the good news to the clergy, there were broad, broad smiles in the room and not a few damp eyes. the kingdom of heaven is like treasure found in a field.

25:50 Wait, Jesus, say that again. The kingdom of heaven is like a list of names running up a runner's left arm written in bold, bright pink ink. The kingdom of heaven is like a doula flying on angels' wings to hold a laboring immigrant woman's hand. The kingdom of heaven is a treasure, an unexpected treasure hidden in plain sight, a source of joy, close at hand, a gentle word in a rough, rough world. It's a word that slows us down, makes us think, swells our heart. Yes, yes, yes, we say this is what I've been looking for.

26:43 Amidst the craziness and the meanness, God keeps saying a defiant nevertheless keeps inspiring joy, keeps strewing our path with treasures, treasures that swell our hearts and make us toss aside every other plan we had for the day, for every day, to run off. and by the farm.