Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

With God, we must learn to expect the unexpected.

There is an episode of “I Love Lucy” that is the perfect starting place for today’s sermon. For those of you that don’t know the “I Love Lucy” show, think “Will and Grace” in black in white. Our star, Lucy, was a ditzy redhead that got into different adventures every week.

Now the episode I’m thinking of was when Lucy decided to try out the pioneer life. Her plans include baking bread, only she takes the more is better approach with yeast and flour producing a giant mass of dough that overwhelms her tiny kitchen. Lucy and Ethel wrestle the dough around the kitchen attempting to knead it, while Lucy makes funny faces. After throwing the dough around, she turns it into a loaf that really a mound of dough that covers the sheet pan and throws it in the over. Later, she returns to the kitchen wondering why the oven door has been opened. When she pull the door down, out comes a giant, like
really huge, rectangular loaf of bread that just keep coming and coming out of
the oven until it pushes her to the floor.

For anyone that has ever baked bread, the entire scenario is ridiculous. However, this vignette from I Love Lucy is a fabulous way to come at our series of parables today in the Gospel of Matthew. While Jesus may not have been looking for laughs, he definitely offered up the absurd in order to capture the attention of his listeners. Jesus’s parables were never simple stories but instead introduced seemingly ridiculous elements to common-day occurrences designed to leave the disciples and crowds wondering what he meant.
Comedians often play off similar patterns, and Lucy depends on the knowledge of everyday homemakers in the 1950s to play up her humor. Right away, anyone that has ever baked bread would know that her giant ball of dough was TOO MUCH. More is not always better when it comes to yeast and flour. As Lucy wrestles with “kneading” the dough, experienced bakers are cringing at her technique and hilarious facial expressions. All of it is too much. The yeast, the dough, the stumbling around the kitchen. One regular loaf of bread takes about this much dough and Lucy has over 10 times that much.

Lucy plays off the expectations of the experienced baker. While we watch the episode dreading how this mass of dough will expand and fill the oven, Lucy comes in to find a perfectly formed, though enormous, loaf that happens to be over 12 feet long! At this point, we are laughing at our own expectations that the comedienne would limit herself to our worldview. Instead, Lucy offers us a radical outcome, beyond reality, beyond expectations
and assumptions.

When Jesus describes a tree growing from the seed of a normally bushy plant, or stranger, a gardener planting weedy shrubs in the middle of a productive field, he is challenging the norm. Jesus undermines assumptions and defies expectations. His parables describe radical outcomes from daily events. Expect the unexpected. The Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus tells us, is not what we expect.

This is the common thread to the parables; the Kingdom of Heaven is unlike your everyday world because it defies all of our preconceived notions. In the Kingdom of Heaven, you throw a giant lump of dough in a tiny oven and an enormous loaf of perfect bread emerges.

These parables also make the listener uneasy because there is just enough that is familiar to leave us wondering where or what exactly the Kingdom of Heaven is. Is it out there? Is it here? Is it near?

What we need to remember is that regardless of what we think of the afterlife, Jesus was not necessarily describing an after-death experience. Another way of thinking of the Kingdom of Heaven is as a description of God’s work in the world around us. Where God touches the world, we see evidence of radical transformation. God’s power doesn’t have to follow the rules of the world; God’s outcomes are profound and turn our preconceived notions upside-down. When God is at work in the world, expect the unexpected.

Now, often, this can be an uncomfortable feeling. Indeed, the work of God often leaves us feeling overwhelmed, maybe even awkward, as we are challenged to reconsider our current assumptions.

Jesus’s parables were meant to throw the listener off kilter. Like a sitcom, he took everyday scenarios and told them with a twist. How exactly was the treasure found in the field, was it legal? Why did the merchant sell everything for the one pearl, was that wise? How did Lucy end up with a perfect loaf from her disastrous dough, is this possible?

God’s work is not always comfortable. Sometimes it calls attention to our beliefs. Sometimes God forces us to examine our assumptions. We will find that much of God’s work is done in our lives where there is some tension and pressure. Like Lucy wrestles with the dough, we sometimes must wrestle with our preconceived notions about God’s world.

Talking about discomfort and awkwardness gives us the opportunity to discuss transition. As we begin a new ministry together as parish and rector, we will naturally go through a period of transition. As a church, you have been in this period already for over a year. But now there will be a new time for learning about each other. Change can sometimes be challenging.

We will naturally progress through our own periods of discomfort, and there will be awkward moments as we adapt to each other. This is normal and to be expected. It will be part of our journey, and as we grow together in Christ, I already look forward to how we fulfill God’s work together.

Because ultimately, we are all called to get involved in the work of God. If the parables tell us that God delivers radical outcomes, they also give us another clue to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven comes near through our involvement with God. The farmer has to plant the seed, the baker must knead the bread, the worker must explore the field, the merchant continues to deal, and the fishermen throw out the nets. God impacts this world through our labors.

One of my seminary professors frequently reminded us that we must do the human things for God to do the God things. Another familiar saying reminds us that we are the hands and feet of Christ. We must be involved with God and listen to the call of the Holy Spirit to help manifest God’s radical transformation in the world.


These parables speak to us in two key ways. First, the Kingdom of Heaven, that is God’s work in this world, involves radical transformation. Second, the Kingdom of Heaven is brought into this world through our participation in God’s work. It is as near as we allow it to be.

So, maybe the Kingdom of Heaven is not exactly like a 1950s sitcom, but Jesus’s parables were certainly outlandish stories with a similar flair for capturing our attention. Jesus challenges us to see the potential of the Kingdom of Heaven hear and now. He encourages us to get out there and do the work God gives us to do. Because when we find our ministry, we will see the radical power of God working in the world, even if it’s a giant loaf of bread.

Ultimately, when we get involved with God, we can truly expect the unexpected.

The Rev. Mercedes Clements