The Kingdom of Heaven is Like…
Sermon for Proper 12-RCL
July 27, 2014
Psalm 105:1-11, 45b
He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
"Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."
Today's gospel lesson
explores a question that I bet each and everyone of us has asked – at least one
time – What is the kingdom of heaven like?
It certainly is one that comes up in times of crises. I comes up when someone close to us dies.
What is heaven like? What is the kingdom
like? I frequently preach about the
kingdom coming and dwelling amongst us now and not just at some future time. That certainly is the view of one of my
favorite authors, Verna Dozier who expresses it quite wonderfully in her book
“The Dream of God.” She contends that it
is our love of the worldly possessions and of powers that prevents us from
seeing the kingdom breaking into our lives and letting it spread.
For Paul – in our reading
from his letter to the church in Rome – a church that has been persecuted and
is living under a powerful Roman government – he asks “Who will separate us
from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” And
the answer is none of these things has the power – in and of themselves to
separate us from the love of God. What
are the powers in our lives that separate us from the love of Christ and keep
us from seeing God’s reign of love all around us? Is it reading about the wars in the Ukraine
that leads us to doubt God’s love? Is it
the killing of innocent lives in the conflict in Gaza that we hear about all to
often these days that keeps us from seeing God?
Is it our love of material things and the desire for order in all things
that keeps us from seeing the love of God?
These things certainly don’t stop God from loving us but if we focus
entirely on the bad and fallen nature of the evil that is very real in this
world it perhaps can stop us from feeling the love. And from being partners with God in the
subversive act of living out what Verna Dozier calls “The Dream of God”. The dream that we – as partners with God –
will show the world that Christ came not to prepare us for some eschatological
– end of the world – time of love and peace but that Christ came to prepare us
to help bring that reign of love and peace to our world now. To spread the kingdom of heaven in this evil
world and watch as love overpowers evil.
The parables help tell us how to be agents of God.
The kingdom of heaven
is like a mustard seed. We like to make
this parable into a wonderful children’s story about small things becoming big
things. We like to take comfort – as a
relatively small church – in the notion that great things come out of small
beginnings. But there is also a
subversive nature and a call to radical living even in the story of the mustard
seed. One of the preachers that I listen
to on a podcast called Sermon Brainwave[i]
pointed out that Jesus in this case did not pick wheat or some other crop but a
plant that acts as a weed and spreads into the countryside, like an invasive
species, and grows large enough for the birds to nest in it. These small seeds can spread and take over
and if we are one of those small seeds we better be careful because birds might
come and nest – and perhaps not the birds that we expect! If we plant the small seeds of love and
justice in St. Paul’s and in our lives we may get all kinds of people showing
up that will nest and not leave. We just might get people who are hungry to
hear and feel the love of God showing up.
And they may take the seeds and plant them elsewhere. That is one of the things that birds are good
at – eating the seeds and planting them all over the countryside in lovely
packets of fertilizer!
The kingdom of heaven
is like leaven hidden in a whole bunch of flour. A small amount of leaven in a ridiculous
amount of flour. Three measures would be
about 2 gallons of flour and would make about 11 loaves of bread according to
one source I found.[ii] That is a lot of bread made out of a small
about of leaven. The kingdom of heaven
is like a substance that transforms ordinary flour into bread. That radically transforms flour into a staple
of life. If we let this leaven into our
lives we might be radically transformed and more we might spread that
transformation out into the world. Are
we leaven in our world? Are we given the
power to transform powers and systems that oppress into systems that feed? Beware of letting the Holy Spirit into your
lives! A small dose is enough to make us
co-workers in transforming a seemingly large and unreceptive society into one
that mirrors Christ’s love for all of creation.
Letting God’s leaven into our lives might just bring God’s Dream of love
into our world instead of us waiting for some future time in “heaven”.
The kingdom of heaven
is like treasure found in a field and we go sell everything and buy the
field. Or it is like a pearl of great
value that we find and sell everything to acquire it. On face value these two parables tell us that
the kingdom of God is valuable and once we find it we will do everything in our
power to get it. But wait a minute. Lets look at these again. There is a subversive angle here too. We are finding the treasure that belongs to
someone else and we deceptively go and buy the underlying land or the pearl
from someone who is unaware of their value.
It reminds me a
little bit of the story of how Los Angeles acquired water from the Owens Valley. The Chandler Corporation bought the farmland
not for its value in growing crops but for the accompanying water rights and
then turned the Owens Valley into a dust bowl by shipping the water south.
Is that what Jesus is
advocating here? Or is he saying that
once we get a taste of the love of God we will be willing to do strange and
wonderful things to spread the word? Are
we willing to let go of the things that keep us from the love of God? Are we willing to share that treasure with
the world? Again once we find the love
of God and let the Holy Spirit into our lives we will do crazy things. We will find ourselves writing checks to
support wonderful charities. We will find
our selves welcoming all of our neighbors into our church and our hearts. We might even find ourselves going to seminary
in our 50s!
The kingdom of Heaven
in like a net thrown into the sea and catching fish of every kind! But perhaps we don’t want every kind of
fish. We only want the good tasting
fish. We don’t want the bony mud-eating
suckers. But the kingdom accepts all
kinds of fish. And it is not our jobs to
decide which kinds of fish belong. We
are called to throw out the net of God’s love and let whatever we find in the
net into the kingdom. That is God’s
dream. That we will spread a wide net
and not be picky about what we catch. We
will love whoever shows up, as God loves us.
That is how we build the kingdom of heaven here. We throw open our doors and invite everyone
who passes into our club. Because is
really isn’t our church. This is not a
club for like-minded individuals. It is
supposed to be a place where we mirror Christ’s love for us when we interact
with our neighbors – even – and perhaps especially those who are not like us –
for those we find challenging.
And as for the
sorting of the fish – the sorting of the good from the evil. Simply put that is not our job. That is God’s job at some future end of time. We are not to worry if the person we
encounter is evil – we are to work on the assumption that the person is
not. We are – however – called to point
out institutions and powers that are contrary to the love of God. We are called to pull down the barricades of
injustice that keep people from having food to eat and adequate shelter. We are called to find ways to eradicate the
powers that would keep anyone oppressed.
And to leave some future sorting to God.
What is the kingdom
of heaven like for you? How would you
describe the seemingly indescribable? Does
this set of rapid fire parables do it for you?
Are you like the disciples who answered the question of "Have you
understood all this?" with a resounding yes? If you are – great!
But it is ok to answer with “No” I don’t
completely understand all of this. It is
ok to take the parables into our hearts and to let them take root. To let the radical love of God show us first
hand what heaven is like. To see around
us the modern expression of the kingdom.
Perhaps the kingdom of God is like the invitation we make to everyone
who comes through these doors to share with us in communion. To share with us in food and fellowship. To provide food to those who are hungry by
offering sack lunches.
Where do you see the
Kingdom of Heaven in your life? I invite
you to take just one of these parables and live with it this week. To wrestle with it and see if it opens any
insights into what God is calling each of us to do as individuals and what it
is calling St. Paul’s to do to bring God’s Dream to fruition now. To bring the reign of love and justice into
our lives and into the lives of everyone we touch.
Amen.
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