The Kingdom Is Here

Matthew 13:31-52     7-27-2014

The Kingdom of God is like a sower,

the kingdom of God is like a field,

the kingdom of God is like weeds and wheat.

Jesus is very interested in the Kingdom of God

and thinks its important that we know about it.

Now, for most of Christianity’s history,

when Jesus talked about the kingdom of God,

we assumed that he was talking about heaven

a place that we would see if we were good and flossed regularly.

The kingdom of God was somewhere, a place

like Disney Land. And  we’d only see it after we’d died.

But if Jesus was only talking about heaven

what does that mean if heaven is like a

mustard plant, or leavening?

Maybe we could sort out the pearl or the treasure,

or the net, but mustard plants and leavening?

I’m sure we could come up with better things to say

about the kingdom of heaven.

There are more majestic trees than mustard

there are more delicious ingredients than yeast.

And the truth is, mustard wasn’t

a positive image to use. Mustard could be a useful tree,

the leaves and the seeds and the stems could all be used for things.

But in the dry, desert environment of the Middle East,

mustard mostly had a reputation for being an invasive 

plant that would crowd all other kinds of plants out.

Once you got it in there, it was hard to get rid of and control,

There was actually a Jewish law

that said you couldn’t plant it in your field

because it would inevitably reach someone else’s field.

The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed

Today, an equivalent might be,

The Kingdom of God is like bamboo that someone

planted without putting a cement border around

it and it soon filled everyone’s front yards.

And Jesus also says the Kingdom of God

is like yeast that a woman has mixed into three measures of flour.

That’s almost 80 pounds of flour.

Imagine putting yeast into that?

Once you put that in, something was going to happen,

you were going to end up working,

you might even have to call in some friends to help you,

and get extra pans because that flour was not flour anymore,

that would be lots and lots of bread.

The only image I could come up with for today is

the kingdom of God is like putting regular

soap in the dishwasher and running it.

(If you haven’t done that, yet, just ask someone who has.)

 Or putting a male and a female rabbit in a cage together.

 

Regardless, these images aren’t really

ones you would use to describe a place,

definitely not a place of eternal rest and joy and unity with God.

That’s because I don’t think Jesus is interested

in describing heaven to us

Jesus is more interested in the kingdom of God

on earth as it is in heaven.

The kingdom of God as it is here and now.

It works , it makes things different,

it invades it infests, it grows, it changes things.

The kingdom of God does something.

The kingdom of God is like that. It starts with one small action,

one act of love, forgiveness, sacrifice, understanding.

And it spreads - invading this world, changing it.

like bamboo, like liquid soap, like rabbits,

like mustard, like yeast in a lot of flour.

The kingdom of God is here and now, today.

And even when the world might seem hopeless, like these days,

we have faith that the kingdom of God is working all around us.

Sometimes we just have to look.

For instance,

even as Gaza was launching rockets at Israel

and Israel was preparing military action against the Palestinians.

hundreds of observant Muslims and observant Jews across Israel united to break their mutual fast day together.

The 18th day of Ramadan, the Muslim fast, and 17th of Tammuz, a Jewish, fast fell on the same day in June

and hundreds of observant Jews and Muslims joined together

in Israel and all different countries

in mosques, synagogues, and community centers

in the evening to break their fasts together.

And then

In response to loud nasty anti-immigrant protests in Murrieta, California, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Murrieta

decided to open their doors and help and host immigrant children and families.

And then 200 people came to a vigil to offer prayer in support of refugee families arriving in local communities.

In response to Christians being persecuted in

Mosul Iraq and being forced to convert to Islam or pay exorbitant taxes or be severely punished, 200 Muslim people, 

gathered in front of a Catholic church in Baghdad to show solidarity with Christians.

A priest at a Catholic Church in Mosul said:

“What gives us hope is a group of citizens - 

Muslims - from Baghdad carrying slogans saying “I am Iraqi, I am Christian,”

“They prayed in solidarity with us,

saying that we are people from this land,”

And right here, our own children at VBS 

went out and collected food from our neighbors. A lot of it! To give out to people who come to our food pantry.

It starts with one little action 

and that action is contagious,

it does something, it changes things.

The kingdom of God is here.

In these acts, in these faces, 

in the hearts of these people 

--Christian, Jewish and Muslim -- who take a chance, and give of themselves.

Although it may seem like the weeds are winning in our garden sometimes. 

The kingdom of God may seem too small to make a difference, 

but it’s powerful and precious.

It is like a small pearl of great value,

it’s like treasure that you would trade everything for.

Because once God plants it in us

and it starts growing, nothing will stop it.