Mrs. Turpin. At sunset one evening she is washing out the pig pen with a hose and she is given the gift, the gift of a glimpse of the eternal procession of the Saints into God’s Kingdom. She sees a vast crowd all sorts of misfits and sinners processing and dancing into the kingdom with joy.
Then she sees her people. The virtuous. Those with enough sense to use well what they had. They process with pride and dignity and proper order. But when the glory of heaven pierces them their faces are twisted with horror as even their virtues are burned away. The virtue that they are so proud of and dignified with…they have to give it all up as they enter God’s Kingdom.
Flannery O’Connor was a southern writer from mid twentieth century rural Georgia. She is one of my favorite thinkers, or rather speakers-of-God, not only for her well crafted and upsetting story telling but also as a theologian. She understood that true theology can only really be done with stories. Much like Jesus and his use of parables. Ultimately the story of our lives is the truest theology of all.
The story of Mrs. Turpin is from the end of her short story called Revelation. It ends with this powerful and unsettling vision of Heaven.
You know we always hear about the Kingdom of Heaven being this wonderful place.
Today Jesus calls us up short on this.
We see a different picture of what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.
What is the Kingdom of heaven like? Imagine those who work hard all day in the heat of the sun being paid the same wages as those who showed up at the last minute and barely did any work at all. That is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Because the last…they are first and the first…they are last.
So first of all the Kingdom of Heaven is surprising. No scratch that, it’s more than surprising, it’s upsetting. No scratch that too, it’s more than upsetting, it’s infuriating.
What is the Kingdom of Heaven like? It’s like having all our expectations disappointed, its like being called up short, its like being really surprised, it’s like having our sense of fairness and justice and value drastically reversed. The Kingdom of Heaven is simply infuriating!
If we read today’s parable and are upset and unsettled then that means we understand it perfectly. If we read it and try to explain it so that it makes sense or that it is comfortable then we misunderstand it drastically.
This parable has one purpose, to upset and unsettle, to depict God’s grace as something utterly foreign and strange, completely other, God’s grace is holy, that is what it is, and holiness is just weird, set apart, unique, incomparable. We can only approach this holy grace with strange stories, with parables of having our expectations adjusted in unexpected and unforeseen ways.
We are left being suspicious of our own virtues.
We are left with an invitation to be thankful.
We are left with a challenge to seek out and invite those who are left out for whatever reason.
But more than anything we are challenged to experience the sheer and cutting grace of God, to encounter God, whose generosity is unsettling and infuriating.
Jesus Christ is the Manna from Heaven; he is bread raining down upon the earth, food for all, rained down upon all without rhyme or reason.
Jesus is the living parable of God, holy and strange, relentless and inevitable, speaking and rearranging a new universe into creation.
May all our lives tell such a strange story of unsettling generosity and outrageous invitation.