Seeds and leaven rise up to heaven.
Pearls and treasure require a great measure.
Tares and nets...where are the sure bets? [1]

During one of the darkest chapters of American history, the Great Depression, people were gambling with their futures every single day. John D. Rockefeller, then ninety-three years old, observed, "These are the days when many will be discouraged." Everyone was looking for one thing—a sure bet.

There was a young pharmacist named Ted Hustead. [2] In 1931, only two years after Black Tuesday, he graduated from the University of Nebraska School of Pharmacy. He was twenty-eight years old. His wife, Dorothy, was twenty-four. Like so many young couples, they wondered where God was leading them. Against everyone's advice, they moved to a tiny prairie town called Wall, South Dakota, a place of only four hundred people, tucked between the open plains and the Badlands. They rented a small storefront and opened a pharmacy. Their friends thought they were crazy. "How could four hundred people possibly support a drugstore?"

Business was painfully slow. A rancher needing medicine. A mother buying cough syrup. Children stopping in for penny candy. That was about it. Yet they had chosen Wall because they loved the people. Before moving, they had agreed they needed three things: a good doctor, a reputable bank, and a faithful church. They found all three, especially a wonderful church. Their priest continually encouraged them with two simple words: "Persevere. We must persevere." He reminded them of St. Paul's promise: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." [3]
Still, the bills mounted. Ted and Dorothy took turns filling prescriptions and serving sodas while the other cared for their growing family in the apartment above the store. They felt very small. Insignificant. They wondered whether God had brought them there by mistake. Then Dorothy asked one simple question: "What are we giving back to this community?" Her answer became famous. She suggested placing handmade signs around town that simply read: FREE ICE WATER. The neighbors appreciated it. The ranchers appreciated it. The children appreciated it. Then tourists driving across South Dakota began stopping. They couldn't believe it. "Free? During the Great Depression? What's the catch?" There wasn't one. It was simply hospitality. A tiny act of generosity became the mustard seed that God used to grow something enormous. Today Wall still has only about eight hundred residents, but nearly two million visitors every year stop at Wall Drug because one family decided to offer a cup of cold water. Sometimes the smallest acts become God's greatest miracles.

That is exactly what Jesus is teaching us today. Between verses 31 and 50 of Matthew's thirteenth chapter, Jesus tells six short parables in rapid succession. I doubt He rattled them off one after another exactly this way. Matthew intentionally gathers them together because together they reveal one great mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven. Notice the pattern. Matthew pairs them. The first pair is the mustard seed and the leaven. Both are incredibly small. A mustard seed is almost invisible, yet it grows into a shrub large enough for birds to nest in its branches. The mustard plant belongs to the weed family. Weeds grow where nothing else survives. They push through cracks in pavement. Pull them up, spray them, and somehow they return. Leaven is even smaller. Tiny organisms disappear into flour, yet they quietly transform an entire loaf of bread. The Kingdom begins that way. Quietly. Patiently. Almost unnoticed.

Then Matthew gives us another pair. The hidden treasure and the pearl of great price. One is discovered unexpectedly by a laborer in a field. The other is sought intentionally by a wealthy merchant. One stumbles upon grace. The other spends a lifetime searching for it. Yet both recognize the incomparable worth of God's Kingdom. Both gladly surrender everything else because they have found what truly matters. Then Matthew brings us back to two more sobering images. The wheat and the tares and the good fish and the bad fish gathered in the net. These remind us that God's Kingdom calls for discernment. God's patience should never be mistaken for indifference. He allows wheat and weeds to grow together for a season. He allows every kind of fish to be gathered into the net. But in the end, God separates what belongs to His Kingdom from what does not. Not because He delights in judgment. But because He delights in righteousness.
The common thread through all six parables is perseverance. God delights in using what seems small. Tiny seeds. Tiny microbes. Simple acts of generosity. Hidden treasure. One beautiful pearl. One cup of cold water. God desires every person to share in His Kingdom, but He asks us to trust Him enough to invest our lives in His purpose, even when the results seem invisible.

What, then, can we offer to those who travel through Indian Rocks Beach? Like Ted and Dorothy, we have a wonderful church. We offer the Bread of Life. We offer welcome. We offer kindness. We are known by the love we have for one another. Perhaps we are the living parable someone has been searching for. So let us continue speaking in parables, not merely with words, but with our lives. Seeds and leaven rise up to heaven.
Pearls and treasure require a great measure.
And the tares and the nets...
Where is the sure bet?
The sure bet is not in ourselves.
It is in the patient mercy of God.
From the beginning He has borne with our weakness, forgiven our debts, and lovingly waited for us to grow into the people He created us to be. Tell others that God is patient. Tell them that God has not given up on them. Tell them that our hope, our only sure bet, is found in the Lord. In Jesus Christ, the maker of heaven and earth.

[1] The Rev. Jon Roberts
[2] Story provided by The Best of Guideposts, Ideals Pub.,TN, 2005, pp.238-41.
[3] Romans 8:28