Mark 4:26-34
26Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
30He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
33With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you O Christ
Today we heard Jesus say that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that when it has grown becomes the greatest of all shrubs.
- The greatest of all shrubs?
- What kind of kingdom is this?
- Yet he says Heaven’s kingdom is like Shrubs.
- We may think that the kingdom of God should follow our value system.
- And be powerful and impressive and shiny.
- But that is not what Jesus brings.
- Jesus brings a kingdom ruled by the crucified one.
- Spread throughout with mercy rather than power.
- The Kingdom is always found in the unexpected.
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Jesus talked again and again about the kingdom of heaven and found any image available to tell us how to spot it – like:
- A little yeast leavens the whole loaf…a woman searches until she finds a lost coin…a father throws a festive banquet for a most unworthy son who has returned home…shepherd leaves all the sheep to seek one lost sheep…a wounded insider is helped by an unworthy outsider…a mustard seed grows into a treehouse for birds…the poor – crippled – blind and lame are brought in to a great dinner party…the humble sinner is justified – not the proud law-keeper…a poor and hungry beggar lies in the bosom of Abraham.
- And spotting these images is important.
- And the reason it is important is because there are two kingdoms.
OK…remember the Alleluia chorus in Handel’s Messiah?
- For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth: Hallelujah!
- The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord…And of His Christ…And He shall reign forever.
- OK then…there is the kingdom of heaven and there is the kingdom of this world.
- Not as in the world God created and called good.
- But the kingdom of this world we created for ourselves.
- The world according to us.
I randomly ask people what they believe the Kingdom of this world is like.
- One said…a thick fog that seems large…scary and impenetrable. But it is passing away.
- Another said: the kingdom of this world is like a rich…good-looking guy whose stock portfolio is as breathtaking as his Italian loafers.
- The kingdom of this world is a seemingly impenetrable system of victim and victimizer…winner and loser…rich and poor.
Everything around us can feel like it is demanding our allegiance to the Kingdom of this world.
- Allegiance to the weight-loss industrial complex.
- Allegiance to a worthiness-based system of getting ahead in life.
- The kingdom of this world wages an endless campaign for our loyalty.
- It is on billboards and magazines and TV.
- And the messages we receive lure us in with false promises.
- The promises of a human engineered kingdom are empty.
- The kingdom of this world cannot save us.
But Jesus came to bring another kingdom.
- You see…when God could no longer be contained by heaven…heaven came to Earth.
- The love God had for the world overflowed the heavens and was made flesh in the person of Jesus.
- And God’s Christ brought a message of good news to the poor and release to the captives and freedom to the oppressed.
- And he healed the sick and ate with sinners and scoffed at the powerful and he said the Kingdom of God has come near.
In the small and the unlikely and the unwanted and the mustard seed the kingdom of God comes to us.
- And it changes everything.
- This is the Kingdom of Heaven says Revelation 21:
- That God had come to dwell with us. To make us people of God. To make all things new.
- For the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord…and of His Christ…and He shall reign for ever and ever.
We need to discover our own images of what the kingdom of heaven is like.
- It is important to have a field guide.
- To listen to Jesus when he says what it is like so that we can see it in our own lives.
- When we can identify the kingdom of heaven sown around us…it is not just an FYI kind of thing.
- It is God peeking through the curtain and letting us know that there is a deeper reality present in the world.
- A reality in which God gets God’s way.
- It is the light of God’s Christ which shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot…will not…shall not overcome it.
- And seeing where God seems to be insistently and dangerously and gorgeously and hilariously sewing signs of the kingdom is important.
- Because seeing signs of the kingdom of heaven loosens us from the kingdom of this world.
- It frees us from the false promises of human culture and shows us that which is eternal and true and unstoppable.
- It shows us that drug overdoses and sweat shops and divorce and unemployment and senseless violence are not the final word.
- God and God alone will have the final word.
- Even if inconveniently God does not meet our expectations or work on our timeline.
You see…the kingdom of heaven is found in the ordinary…the daily.
- The kingdom of heaven is found right in front of our eyes.
- And when you see it…something is made new.
- A part of the world…a part of us is made new.
- Something is made new when the empty promises of the world according to us…
- Gives way to the whimsy…and the true and the eternal in the world according to God.
- And it is always a surprise.
- So…let us tilt our heads and look sideways at our lives and we just might see it in the small and in the unexpected.
Let us tilt our heads and look sideways and catch a glimpse.
- For the Prince of Peace has begun his reign.
- The signs are all around.
- They are signs of a battle already won.
- Signs of a world loved so deeply by God that God refuses to leave it alone.
- So…take another look. See if you can spot it.