New Testament Eucharistic Readings for Sunday of Proper 12: Year A
Romans 8:26 to 39; Matthew 13:31 to 33 and 44 to 52:
“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matthew 13: 51 – 52)
Leading up to the part where our Lord Jesus asks if the disciples “understood all this,” is a series of “The kingdom of heaven is like,” statements. These similes are all intended to show both the growth-effect of the kingdom of heaven, (something old), and that the heart of a person’s greatest desire, can be accomplished (something new).
The mustard seed grows to be the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. The Israelites have been scattered and twice caught in bondage but in spite of all this they grew and grew. They overcame their captors with God’s help and were freed. They became the foundational tree of a One God theology where all the peoples of the earth could find comfort in its branches.
When Jesus gave us the Commandment to first love God and then to love our neighbors as ourselves, he established for us what ought to be our greatest desire. Finding our love for God is like finding a treasure hidden in a field, something for which we should be most happy to sell everything we have in order to have it. Again, finding our love for God is like finding fine pearls and again selling all that we have to have them. Truly loving God is total and complete happiness. It is when we love God with all that we are that we can then love our neighbors. It does not work when trying to love neighbor or even family before loving God. Love God first, then it works.
The reward of our faith, and the growth of it, brings us both something new and something old. But also, this is to reflect the, Torah (something old), and the Christian Testament (something new), so when the disciples were asked if they understood all this, I doubt they really did. I doubt most Christians today really understand all this. The important question is, my beloved of Christ, do you understand all this?
How does pondering your love for God cause a change in how you live your life? How does understanding the Torah (that, that you hate, do not do to others) the Old; and the Christian Testament (do unto others as you would have them do onto you) the New, connect in you in your attitude towards others? How do you bring these two of something old and something new together? Therefore, live your life as the scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, and our schools.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 