The Rev. Canon Melanie Dickson Lemburg
The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 12A
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Newport, AR
July 26, 2026
Good morning! My name is Melanie Lemburg, and I’m the (still relatively new) Canon to the Ordinary for the Diocese of Arkansas. I’m delighted to be with y’all for the very first time today; I’ve heard wonderful things about you from your rector, Theresa!
It’s been a stressful week for me and our family. We’re in the process of moving; we bought a home in Little Rock just this week, and we’re selling our home in Savannah, GA at the beginning of August. When I leave here today, I’m going to drive to Savannah to help my husband and our two young adult children start sorting and throwing away and organizing our stuff to get ready to move. (I’ve become ridiculously excited about the prospect of ordering a roll up dumpster to be placed in our driveway!). However, this move has already had its share of bumps (and I suspect there are more to come.). Somewhere along the way, between the company who is supposed to be overseeing our move and the company who is actually going to move us, we got lost. And so late this week, there has been a decided scrambling on both companies’ parts to try to get our move scheduled in the time frame we need it to be scheduled. And let me tell you: it does not feel good to feel like we’ve been lost in the midst of this already major and stressful transition in the life of our family.
In our gospel reading for today, we see Jesus continuing in Matthew’s gospel with a series of 8 parables that are found in this chapter 13. (Part of our reading today is actually wedged into the reading from last week, falling between Jesus’s teaching of the parable of the weeds that were sown among the good seed and the explanation of the parable.). And in today’s reading, Jesus tells a series of very short stories about things that were hidden or found that were great treasurers or that bear good fruit. Now, what’s interesting to me about these stories today is that in order for something to be found, it is implied that, at some point, it was lost (or maybe just hidden).
Our collect for today also gives us little hints and tastes of finding and losing as we prayed: “O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal…”
It’s interesting that today we are asking for an increase and a multiplication of God’s mercy so that we may not lose eternal things as we pass through things temporal.
The Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor writes this about these parables from Matthew’s gospel: “The striking thing about all these images is their essential hiddenness—the mustard seed hidden in the ground, the yeast hidden in the dough, the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl hidden among all the other pearls, the net hidden in the depths of the sea. [She concludes] If the kingdom is like these, then it is not something readily apparent to the eye but something that must be searched for, something just below the surface of things waiting there to be discovered and claimed.”[i]
And what I’m wrestling with this week (and I suspect y’all are no strangers to this as well), is that it is so much easier to search below the surface of things to find the Kingdom of God when things are going well or easily. It is infinitely harder to do this work of looking below the surface of things to see the Kingdom of God when we, ourselves, are feeling discouraged or stressed or lost. That’s why the collect has been a necessary companion for me this week with this gospel reading: as a reminder and an invitation to me to ask for God’s mercy to help me see God’s kingdom below the surface of things.
So what are the ways that we can do that looking to see the Kingdom of God that is hidden or dwells just below the surface of things? Well, here’s what has helped me this week: Staying connected in those relationships that help us feel found. Being open to joy and to the places that the hidden kingdom of God peeks out and us and gives us glimpses of where to look deeper. Spending time in prayer with God, who is worthy of our trust, who protects us, who is abounding in steadfast mercy and loving-kindness, and for whom we will never be lost.
Years ago, I was introduced to the singer, songwriter and poet Carrie Newcomer. Her music and poetry and writings continue to be a lovely companion to me on my own spiritual journey. Many years ago, I came across a song of hers that is titled Every Little Bit, and it’s all about how the kingdom of God can be hidden in plain sight just below the surface of things.
Here’s how it goes:
[VERSE 1]
Just beyond my sight
Something that I cannot see
I've been circling round a thought
That's been circling round me
Like the vapor of a song
That is just out of earshot
And I thought I knew the question
But I guess not
[Chorus]
There it is just below the surface of things
In a flash of blue, and the turning of wings
Drain the glass, drink it down, every moment of this
Every little bit of it, every little bit
[VERSE 2]
I swam against the tide
I tripped on my own pride
So I'll try again today
To get out of my own way
The face was always in the stone
Said Michelangelo
We just have to chip and clear
To see what is already thеre
[Chorus]
There it is just below the surface of things
In a flash of blue, and the turning of wings
Drain the glass, drink it down, every moment of this
Every little bit of it, every little bit.[ii]
Your invitation this week is to pay attention to what is lost, what is hidden, what lives just below the surface of things, in your life, in this church, and in the world around you, both in good times and in challenging times; and to ask for God’s mercy to find and be found by God.
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