I am one of those people who sometimes wishes that God would show his power and do something spectacular. I would like to see some fire fall from heaven, or hear God shout from his throne. It would prove to some people that he is there and that he is powerful. I wish I could lay my hands on people and they would always be healed by the power of God. I wouldn’t even mind if people fainted under the power of the Spirit when I laid hands on them. I would like to have someone who was paralyzed come to the front of the church in a wheelchair and then do a dance after we prayed for them. I would like to conduct a funeral in the church that turned into a resurrection. It would make a nice headline for the paper. I would like to see the lives of drug addicts and dysfunctional people healed and completely turned around after they were dramatically converted at the altar of the church. I would like for God to make me completely pure so that I would never sin and be healed of all my faults and failures. I wish God would powerfully touch me so that I would never wrestle with lust, greed or anger again. It would be great if being a Christian meant that I would never have any problems after coming to Jesus.
But God does not open the heavens for us to see him. He is silent. He is more like the farmer in one of Jesus’ parable who plants a vineyard and goes away — or at least seems to. More often we find ourselves struggling with a problem, or some sin, and saying, “God where are you? Why is this so hard? Couldn’t you just wipe out the devil, burn up the evil people in the world and burn up the evil in me? Couldn’t you just solve all the problems people have when they pray so they would know that you are here?”
When we are in the middle of some struggle it is easy to think that all there are are problems. When we face evil or tragedy, it is easy to focus on them and only see what is wrong in the world. It is easy to despair and to believe that the world is so messed up that there is no hope for us.
Dr. Larry Crabb, a Christian psychologist, wrote in Decision magazine (October, 2005): “I could wish with all my heart that it could be done differently. But when suffering comes, which we don’t orchestrate but which God providentially allows, it really is a profound opportunity to believe that God is doing what is central in His heart. One thing I think we need to recognize is that God is not committed to giving me a comfortable life. If He were, He could be doing a better job! He has the resources, and I have a few suggestions — which He doesn’t seem terribly open to. So I presume He has a higher goal. Either He is not very good, or I have to redefine what His goodness means. And obviously it is the latter.”
As Christians, we believe that God is up to something — something wonderful — even when we don’t always see it — even when we don’t always like it. Even when it seems like the world is going to the devil, God is doing something. He knows what he is doing, and he is in control — even when what he is doing seems to us like it is insignificant and not always impressive. A friend of mine wrote recently: “If we are confused, that is what we are supposed to be. The confusion is temporary. We shall see. The lesson, the purpose, shall reveal itself in time — its own time. It will all make perfect sense — later.”
The parable today tells us that it doesn’t have to be something big to be something which can change the world. Suzanne Guthrie, writing in Christian Century (May2, 2001), tells this story: “A friend of mine who served in the military during World War II (and is now a nun) was once at a conference with two men, a German and an American. As they wiped dishes one evening after dinner they exchanged stories about the war. The American told of the horror he felt as a young pilot during a particularly savage bombing of a city in Germany. He had orders to bomb the hospital, which he would know by the huge red cross painted on the roof. The second man — after regaining his composure — revealed that his wife had been giving birth to their baby in that very hospital when it was being bombed. My friend tiptoed out of the room as the two men fell into each other’s arms weeping. Imagine being in heaven, at the end of the world, where we might fall weeping upon one another, waves of reconciliation breaking upon us as we adjust ourselves to this dimension of pure love.”
In the end, that single reconciliation may be more powerful than all the bombs dropped in all the wars the world has known. This is where the world is headed, and it is in God’s direction, happening in God’s way. It is where God intersects the world and the finite is touched by the infinite. The yeast is permeating the dough. This is what God is doing in secret, hidden ways that the world does not see or appreciate. But God is taking the world somewhere. It doesn’t seem like much is happening sometimes, but it is not about appearances, it is about the unseen power of a God who will never give up on redeeming the world. The yeast is unseen, but it powerfully effects every part of the dough. The mustard seed is not seen as it germinates underground and puts down its roots, but in the end it is large enough for the birds to perch in. The treasure is hidden in the field and must be found. The oyster must be opened, or the markets searched, to find the pearl of great price. What appears to be is not always what is.
One biblical commentator explains: “Jewish writers used yeast in a variety of symbolic ways, but Jesus stresses here the factor all had in common: its ultimately pervasive character. One leavens unleavened meal until the finished product is thoroughly leavened. The amount of flour involved here represents roughly fifty pounds, providing enough bread for over one hundred people. A housewife would not normally fix so much meal and could not knead more than this; the unnatural magnitude of the illustration probably suggests that the kingdom far exceeds daily examples to which it may be compared. That she ‘hid’ the yeast in the dough also exceeds the comparison and reinforces the image of the hiddenness of the kingdom in this age.” In other words, God’s plan is much larger and much different than we think.
What God is doing is not always manifest. God starts with two very imperfect people — Adam and Eve. They fail. Then God gives Noah a role in his plan to save the world. The ark lands, and Noah leaves the ark and gets stone-cold drunk as soon as he thinks his mission is accomplished. He lies naked in his tent — a sign of his true condition before God. So God begins again with a very imperfect man named Abraham, whose foolish decisions would have derailed God’s efforts to redeem the human race, if God’s sovereign will to accomplish his purposes was not in place regardless of Abraham’s failures. Jesus left his mission in the hands of twelve (no, make that eleven) very imperfect men who seemed to be clueless for most of the time they were with him. And today, God has left his mission in our hands — our imperfect, clueless, failing hands. It is a miracle that God’s plan marches on, and most do not even see it, because it is hidden from those who will not see. But our sovereign God, who passionately loves us and the world, is at work in the world through us. He does this in ways that we cannot always see, or even imagine. He is with us and for us. And this wonderful and faithful God is powerfully at work and fully determined to bring the world to his designed end.
All of the difficulties of life, all the opposition of an unbelieving world, all the evil that has been perpetrated, put together, cannot squelch a single part of the plan of God. And anyway, the difficulties we face serve a purpose. The Bible says, “These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:7-9). What an amazing thought, to realize that even the troubles of this world are used by God to accomplish his purposes. He does not cause them, but he does use them — uses them in his plan to purify us and bring his blessing on us. That is why Paul wrote: “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).
The hidden kingdom is what brings encouragement for today and hope for the future. As Peter wrote, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).
What would our lives be like if we lived as though this were true? What would we be like if we lived as though our hope was not in this world; as though our hope was not in our health, our government, our economy, or even our freedom? What if we did not allow the government to take the place of God in our lives, and look to it for our prosperity, our freedom and our security? What if our hope was in something hidden — at least from those who will not see? What if we hoped in God alone and his sovereign plan to reconcile the world and bring the world to a good end, regardless of how things appear. For, again, what appears to be is not always what is. We see the dough, but not the yeast which is at work in it. The dough is the world, and the yeast is the powerful working of the Holy Spirit of God in the world. We see the mustard seed, but we cannot imagine the tree it will become. But God uses small seeds to make great trees — little beginnings with great endings. We see the field, but not the treasure hidden in it. We see the world, but not the treasure of what it means to know God and be God’s people in the world — his redemptive agents. We see the oyster and miss the pearl of great price. We see the mundaneness of life and miss the value of what God has hidden within life. We see what appears to be obvious and miss the wonder. We see what is, and God see what can be — what one day will be.
We often live as though God does not exist — even those of us who say we believe in him. We stagger under the weight of worry over how things are. We only see what is before us and fail to see what is hidden. Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children” (Matthew 11:25). And we have this promise from him: “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known” (Luke 12:2). One day we will see it all and wonder how we could not see it all along.
So What would our lives look like if we really believed this and lived as though this were true? We would live lives of hope, joy and expectation. We would trust God even when things seem to be as bad as they could be. We would believe that God is at work, even when the world is upside down. We would believe that it does not matter how things look and that God really is bigger and more powerful than any personal problem we have. We would praise God no matter how large any world problem is that looms over us, because we would believe that God is quietly working out his sovereign will. We would want to be a part of what God is doing and join in his redemptive work, by giving ourselves to others and being a witness to his grace and faithfulness. God is in the business of deliverance, redemption and renewal. Believe him. Trust him. Be joyful and not afraid.
Chalmers Smith wrote the great hymn that says,
Immortal, invisible,
God only wise,
In light inaccessible
hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious,
the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious,
thy great name we praise. . .
We blossom and flourish
as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish,
but naught changeth Thee.
Great Father of glory,
pure Father of light,
Thine angles adore Thee,
all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render:
O help us to see
‘Tis only the splendor
of light hideth Thee.
Rodney J. Buchanan
July 24, 2011
Amity United Methodist Church
rodbuchanan2000@yahoo.com
