Making a List

“Making a List”
The Rev. Dr. Fred G. Garry

Matthew 13.44-50

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls;on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

            A few days before Halloween, I told my wife, I think we should put out a bowl of rocks as well as candy.  Give the kids a choice.  Kathy gave me a look, a look that doesn’t need further comment, it says, you are insane!  “You know, like Peanuts and Charlie Brown,” I retorted.  “I think it would be fun.”  This idea was vetoed when she said, “we are not putting out a bowl of rocks.” 

            Maybe I was never that good at being a kid, just odd is another possibility, but I would have got the joke.  I loved that Peanuts special where Charlie Brown’s pillowcase is filled with rocks instead of candy.  I mean the kids do say, “trick or treat.”  Not really getting into the spirit of possibility if there is only a bowl of treats. You can’t have either/or if there is just one possibility.

            I remember as a boy my grandparents went on trip to Tennessee to visit my grandfather’s hometown.  When they got back, they had lots of treasures from the small coal town where he grew up.  One of the treasures was a lump of coal.  He gave it to me and laughed about Santa telling him to keep it for my stocking.  Perhaps it was odd, but I loved that lump of coal.  Found it fascinating.  I also found you should not carry it around as it gets all over everything, especially your hands, and your clothes and furniture. 

            I am not sure why I feel compelled today to offer so many confessions of childhood, but another one is that I really believed Santa had a list.  I mean it’s in the song.  Santa Claus is coming to town.  He’s making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out whose naughty and nice.  Made sense to me as a kid. As with many Christmas traditions there is debate about the actual origin of the lists.  Legends of winter solstice spirits terrorizing children is one possibility.  Nothing like the darkest day of the year to induce fear in children.  As child I didn’t ask such questions of origin or tradition, I just believed, and I just hoped I was on the nice list.

            Protestant theology is not much of a help here.  According to our theology we are on both lists.  We are both naughty and nice.  Simul iustus et peccator; we are both righteous and sinful, sinner and saint.  Martin Luther found a strange peace in this paradox.  For him and his compatriots of the sixteenth century, this allowed for grace to work in us.  While I can see the potential of the juxtapositions of opposites as creating a more profound understanding of life, I am just not sure it really works when you get to the Christmas stocking.  It’s as if all the kids should get coal and candy. 

            Given my lack of success at Halloween, I am thinking I will not explore this possibility at Christmas.  Better to leave this in the realm of theological speculation.

            The temptation to speculate, theologically that is, is built into our reading this morning.  Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea and caught every kind of fish; when it was pulled ashore the good fish were thrown into baskets and the bad fish were thrown away. This is the third parable Matthew puts together to form a set.  The buried treasure, the pearl of great price, and the net are a kind of trio.  They go together.  They are the three parables of discernment.  Discernment is what binds them together; you find something of great value, and thus can see and know what is the good. 

            But then, according to Matthew, Jesus speculates.  The bad fish are not only thrown out; they are in for a world of hurt.  Angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Scholars suggest this last bit, the speculation of fiery furnace and gnashing of teeth, has been added on.  It is as if a scribe has scribbled a note on the end of the three parables.  And not just thrown out.  Oh no.  Those bad fish are gonna get it in the end.  It’s possible this last part is a kind of warning added later.  In other words, Jesus didn’t say this. 

            I bring this up not to avoid the hell fire and brimstone.  I think the added scribble is likely because the parables of Jesus are about living this life.  And discernment is not so much at the end of time, but here and now, the end of the day.  The naughty and nice list is not for the end of time, but for the end of the year.  That some fish are good, and some fish are bad in the end of time, doesn’t really work as a true analogy of discernment.  The kingdom of God is about real time, not the end times. Let me give you an example.

            Several years ago, I was on a non-profit board, a great organization called the Urban Mission.  Think our Food Pantry dialed way, way up.  While I was on the board the Mission faced a few issues.  One was a bookkeeper who embezzled.  When we became aware of this, we had a bit of debate as to the right course of action.  There was the usual banter of “we are Christian organization; can’t we help this person.”  There were others who were worried that if this comes to light that people will stop giving to the Mission for fear that their gifts will be stolen.  Finally, the prevailing opinion came forward.  This is a criminal act; we turn this matter over to the police. 

             The embezzling bookkeeper was arrested, and it did make the papers.  Although not pleasant publicity there was no impact on financial support to the Mission.  And while we didn’t seek retribution, in the end we believed it was the right thing to be honest even if there was consequence. 

            As the individual moved through the court system something came to light though.  This was the fourth time she been caught stealing from her employers.  She worked in three local banks and each time she stole money and was caught.  Only in the first three, they simply asked her to move on fearing the damage to their reputation and not wanting to be associated with her trial in the press. I remember feeling more betrayed by the three banks who looked the other way, than by the woman who stole. 

            What I could see in that moment, and what comes to the fore in the third parable of discernment is this: you must be honest about the fish.  The bookkeeper who stole was not a good bookkeeper.  She was not even a good thief as she kept getting caught.  She was a bad fish.

            This third parable is about honesty, and how honesty has a purpose.  And the purpose is to make sure that in our love of God and our pursuit of the kingdom of God, we keep our feet on the ground, we are honest about life.  The treasure buried in the field is to represent the image of God we find buried within us.  The goodness that lies within each of us.  And the pearl of great value is the kingdom of God we find here and now, the church, the traditions, the fellowship, the joy of mercy and shared compassion.  We find these treasures and we keep them by giving up everything for them.  Very beautiful.  But then Jesus offers the third as a kind of balance.

            You can see the balance in the debate that happen at the board meeting when we argued about what to do with the bookkeeper who embezzled.  We should not judge, we should see her as someone we can help, we should see her as a child of God.  All true.  And we should protect the mission.  What if there is more damage done to people who are hungry than a few thousand dollars being stolen?  What if this hurts the ministry we are doing?  True as well.  We could be guided by the buried treasure, or we could be guided by the pearl.  The parables are all meant to guide us.  Yet, what prevailed was the net of fish.  Sometimes you have to say, bad fish.

            Sometimes you must be honest and not put off the reality of everyday.  That there is an image of God in us, the fabric of eternal wisdom woven by the memories of God’s love; we believe this is in each of us.  That the church is bigger than any one person, that this is a gift of God to be sustained with devotion as well as sacrifice; this is true of our church.  These are great truths leading us to remake the world.  We see each person as the image of God, a brother and sister, a new creation born of faith and hope and love.  We see a kingdom sustained not by vengeance or greed or political threat; we see a kingdom sustained by mercy and humility and satisfied by justice.  But these two great visions should not make us blind to bad fish.         

            At the beginning of John Steinbeck’s great novel, Cannery Row, he paints this picture of honesty, a discerning honesty.  He does this with a knothole in a fence.  Steinbeck bids you to come and look through the knothole and see the people who live with you.  When you look you see that they are liars and thieves and adulterers, drunks and bums.  And then says look again.  And this time you see honest people who love and care and sacrifice for you.  Before he tells the tale of Cannery Row he says, “you saw the same people each time you looked.”

             Sinner and saint, naughty and nice.  We are on both lists as it were.  This truth is in the first two parables.  To find the buried treasure of the image of God we must dig through the dirt of our brokenness, our sin and darkness.  And to find the pearl, to find the kingdom of God here we must make our way through the market, the world.  We can’t search by hiding away in a religious sanctuary. These are truths to guide us.  Keep looking for what is best within and without.  Search the soul and the world for what is true and good and beautiful.

            In our pursuit, though, from time to time, not all the time, not even very often, we will need to say, good fish, bad fish.  Oftentimes the bad fish are the definitions we hold.  When you believe you are right to hate someone because of their gender, well, we know that is a bad fish.  When you believe you have the right to force others to give their life away and you feel free to offer nothing in return, bad fish.  Sometimes the bad fish is our actions.  The embezzling bookkeeper was a bad fish.  Could she be something else, become a better person?  I believe so.  Was the image of God in her just as it is in us?  Yes.  But we still had to say, “no.  You are a bad fish.”

            I am certain the bowl of Halloween rocks would have not gone over well- the trick with the treat.  I can concede that Kathy is correct.  No intelligent child would have been tempted to choose the rock.  It’s obvious.  And I am certain that fishermen would have no confusion over what a good fish and bad fish is. 

            With people we need to be just as honest.  Most of the time, most of our days and life together we are trying to find the treasure buried within each of us, and we are just as busy trying to find what is good and true and beautiful in the world.  Most of the time.  And then, from time to time, not often, but still sometimes, we need to be honest and discerning about the net of fish.  The good fish and bad fish.  Amen.