I KINGS 3:5-12

PSALM 119: 129-136

ROMANS 8:26-34

MATTHEW 13:31-33, 44-49a

Sermon – July 24, 2005

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news. Mark 1:14

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 4:17

There is little question that the “Kingdom of God, or for Matthew, the Kingdom of Heaven” and its breaking into history was the central message of Jesus’ teaching.

In the beatitudes in Matthew we hear: “Blessed are the poor for yours is the kingdom of God.” In the Lord’s Prayer we are taught to pray: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done”.

But what the phrase “the kingdom of heaven” mean?

For the Jewish people of Jesus’ time, the idea of the kingdom of heaven had a fairly clear and accepted meaning. In the Psalms, which were a regular part of synagogue worship and private prayer, we read such verses as these:

From Psalm 145,

All your works praise you, O Lord,

and your faithful servants bless you.

They make known the glory of your kingdom

and speak of your power;

That the peoples may know of your power

and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom;

your dominion endure throughout all ages.

or from Psalm 103,

The Lord has set his throne in heaven,

and his kingship has dominion over all.

Such references may be found in many of the Psalms and the prophets. For most of Jesus’ hearers, the idea of the kingdom of heaven included a strong hope for, if not an expectation of, the reestablishment of Israel as an independent state for the Jewish people. This is an idea and hope that endures even to the present.

For people of our time, the idea of the kingdom of heaven or of God is probably at best strange, muddy, and confusing to say the least, to some perhaps even frightening. Some seem to have the idea that the kingdom of heaven will be when everyone goes to church and does what the church says they should. Of course, there are many versions of which church is to be attended and what rules are to be followed. Others seem to believe that the kingdom of heaven is what will be when this earth ends and God’s new order and rule is created in “heaven.” Some seem to believe that the kingdom of heaven will be when justice and peace rule on earth and hunger and pain are no more. Scripture provides some basis for all of these beliefs.

Last week I said:

Although many of Jesus’ parables are based on subjects that seem esoteric and strange to us today, to his listeners, they were based on the common place stuff of everyday life. Those who heard the parables were drawn into them immediately because they were about their world, their reality. But Jesus used the everyday, common stuff in a very special way. Once he had drawn his listeners into this familiar, everyday place, he used the parables to change the ordinary into the extraordinary. He took his listeners to the place where they were all saying “Yeah, I hear you” or “That’s the way it is” only to suddenly have that familiar reality upended, changed or in some way altered so that they could never again quite get back to the old reality.

This is equally true for the five parables that we encounter in today’s gospel. For us, the topic is strange and unfamiliar. We would not want someone to ask us to explain it.

For Jesus’ first hearers it was familiar and most of them could have quickly given what they thought was a correct answer to the question “What is the kingdom of heaven?”

For both his contemporaries and us, he upends and changes our reality.

Since the last of the parables in today’s gospel is very similar to the one in last week’s, I am going to look at only the first four of this week’s parables.

“The kingdom of heaven is like” – anyone who has studied personality types using such tools as Myers-Briggs knows at least one reason why Jesus drove the Pharisees and Scribes crazy and probably tends to drive a lot of lawyers, engineers and scientists crazy today. If you like clear, easy to follow definitions of things, Jesus can make you pull your hair out. In parable after parable, Jesus points to the reality of God and says “see!” He does not define. In particular he does that in the first two parables in today’s gospel.

He takes a topic familiar to men, farming in the first parable, and an activity from the life of women, in the second parable, to point to the reality of the kingdom of heaven.

In the first, a small, insignificant seed grows into a large shrub or small tree that provides shelter and food.

In the second, a small amount of reserved, risen dough is hidden in the meal and transforms the meal into food for 100 to 150 people. The woman must have been preparing for church dinner or quite a feast.

There are four qualities about the “kingdom of heaven” in these first four parables that I want to briefly examine.

1. In its beginning it is often hidden and insignificant. It takes faith and discernment to see it. We must trust that God is at work. The life and ministry of Jesus is an example of this. He was a teacher from a remote, religiously unimportant part of Israel. He chose as his closest followers twelve unknown men who generally did not get what he was trying to teach them and who deserted him when he needed them the most. A few people noticed that Jesus was more than just a healer and teacher. Most missed it.

The work of many missionaries also follows this pattern. The life of Anskar in the ninth century is an example that often comes to my mind. As a young man, he was sent as a missionary to bring Christianity to Scandinavia. The fruit of his long time and work were a priest settled in Sweden and two churches established on the borders Denmark. Most of his contemporaries thought that he was strange for being so persistent. They though he was wasting his time.

It is easy for us to be so busy and occupied that we miss where God is working. We can even be so busy doing good things that we do not see.

2. The life of the “kingdom of heaven” is marked by a major contrast. What starts out small and insignificant grows beyond belief. The two examples above bear witness to this. Both of the above examples started very small. Most people did not see anything significant happening in their ministry. The story of Jesus and what grew out of his ministry is well known. Nearly a hundred years after his death and after the period of the Vikings was over, those small seeds of Anskar’s grew to convert all of Scandinavia. The Scandinavians consider him to be the apostle to Scandinavia.

3. The “kingdom of heaven” is the work of God. It is not of our doing. The man plants the seed. The woman hides the dough. He does not make the seed grow. She does not cause the leaven to raise the meal into dough that can be baked. We are called to work for the “kingdom” in love and humility. We are not called to bring about the “kingdom.” When we try to bring the “kingdom” into being through our own efforts, we create disasters, we often destroy others and ourselves, we often find ourselves resorting to violence. The “kingdom” is God’s creation.

4. It is of great, unparalleled, value. We are often told that we must sacrifice for the “kingdom.” If we are referring to the things the world treasures, we are called to sacrifice them. Paul in his writings makes it very clear that what he has gained by giving up those things is of far greater value. Paul is right. In reality, we are not being asked to sacrifice but to take life. It is as if we are being offered a cup of hemlock or a cup of water. One gives death. The other gives life.

5. There is always urgency about the “kingdom.” Now is the time. Now is the time to repent and turn to the “kingdom.” Now is the time to stop and discern. Now is the time to search and work for the gift of great value. Now is the time to live for and into “the kingdom of heaven”. The German poet Schiller said it this way, “What we have denied the moment, eternity will never give back.”

(The Rev.) William O. Breedlove

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church