“Have you understood all this?” Jesus asked. They said they did, but notice that he kept right on talking. I think that’s because he knew he was on a topic that is very hard for us to take in.
This chair is my “cathedra.” Many of you know why we call this a “cathedral.” “Cathedra” is Latin for chair, and this is the place where the bishop has a permanent cathedra. Of course, he doesn’t sit in it very often, maybe as many as six times a year; every two months or so. We leave it empty when he is not here because it is a reminder that he is our spiritual leader, our connection to the wider church across geography and time, the authority in our polity.
The chair I have brought today is my reminder of an ultimate authority, an ultimate truth that I count on every day. It may not look like an icon of religious wisdom to you, but it is! You see, 30 or 40 years ago, my grandfather found this chair in a dumpster. Someone had decided it was worthless. He climbed in to get it out. He took it home and used a wire brush to prepare it for painting. He gave it a coat of Rustoleum. Then, by hand, he carefully took it apart and made a new covering for the seat and the back. He used it for many years. Now I keep it in the room I use most often. The designers on HG TV might not consider it appealing, but I do.
Sometimes, we really wonder what in the world Genesis is talking about when it says that humankind was made in God’s image. People, ourselves included, seem so flawed. But every now and then some member of humankind gives us a glimpse at the divine. My Grandad did that when he rescued, dare we say “saved” or “resurrected,” this chair. He displayed the exact Godly trait that Jesus tried to describe umpteen different ways in today’s Gospel.
We have a tendency to throw ourselves into the dumpster. We focus on some part of our past that we are not proud of, or a tragedy, or an adverse circumstance, and begin to mentally put ourselves in life’s dumpster, believing that if we can’t change these things, then our chance for a good life is lost. There is a quote you may have heard that is exactly the medicine for this ill, and I will use it just the way I’ve heard it: “God don’t make no junk.” This really was Jesus point. In his finale, he says the Kingdom of Heaven, God’s way of thinking, finds treasure in what is old and treasure in what is new. God is in the business of making something good out of anything and everything. God does not just forgive our past. God actually takes glee in finding ways to creatively use everything about us, our flaws and our virtues. In the brain-teaser about the guy who first buries something in the field and then uses all his resources to buy the field, we’re left wondering why he buried his stuff in someone else’s field to start with. Why not use his own mattress? That’s not the point. Jesus is trying to get across that we are treasures, we are pearls of great worth in God’s eyes. God will stop at nothing to fully possess and polish us.
It is hard for us to take in, but where we see nothing of worth, God sees creative fodder. I have great remorse about some key things in my life, one of which is making a mess of marriage. I don’t bring it up much, because I fear sounding cavalier with any brief reference, and cavalier is not how I feel. But my remorse has given me the chance to experience the complete truth of everything I have just said. God has used my remorse over past choices to give me empathy for others whose lives have not gone perfectly. That empathy is my greatest resource as a priest. Take in what I am saying: a reality I wanted desperately to put in life’s dumpster and never see again has been used by God for good. That’s what God does. This divinely created result is something I didn’t even know to ask for. The Spirit must have interceded with sighs too deep for words. The Spirit must be interceding for each of us right now, around all the issues that concern us most deeply, with sighs too deep for words.
Sadly, this passage often has the result of exacerbating guilt rather than relieving it. We hear that some fish are thrown into the furnace, and we hear a threat of judgment. But that cannot be a correct reading of Jesus’ message. Half the fish are eaten and half the fish are burned. This is not a promise of reward for some and a threat of punishment for others. Only Charlie the Tuna thinks it is a happy ending to end up on the lunch menu!! Jesus is emphasizing God’s stubborn commitment to gather in all, to strive for the separation of all from any evil within or without.
Some of you are wondering if I missed the “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” You are right to notice that, and right to be concerned about it. When God sets about fully possessing us and fully polishing us, it can be painful. We have to let go of familiar things and familiar habits. But what we leave behind will feel like a mustard seed compared to where God can take us.
I have this chair to remind me that God will brush me and paint me and reupholster me without end. We all need some reminder that “God don’t make no junk.” Today after the service, some pets will be waiting in the Great Hall for adoption. Someone discarded them. You can exercise the image of God in you by giving them a new life, and they will remind you daily that God is always at the ready to rescue and recreate all the stuff of this life.
Whether we grieve over something we have done or something done to us, know this: God can turn it into good. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, and nothing can separate us from God’s creative love.