1st READING: Ps 138
2nd READING: Mark 3:20-35
SERMON ‘What shall we say the kingdom of God
is like?’
Let’s pray:
May the words
of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts,
be acceptable
in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
What shall we say the kingdom of God
is like...?
According to
our bible passages this morning:
surprising.
A kingdom that
challenges the too-readily accepted way of things;
A kingdom
that overturns our assumptions;
A kingdom...
that keeps us on our toes.
This is what the kingdom of God is
like...
What shall we say the kingdom of God
is like...?
According to
our bible passages this morning:
unconventional.
A kingdom in
which the least and lowliest,
the small and
the insignificant
are viewed
with promise
are valued
are seen as
having huge importance in the great scheme of things.
This is what the kingdom of God is
like...
What shall we say the kingdom of God
is like...?
According to
our bible passages this morning:
growing.
A kingdom of
sprigs and twigs that, when planted,
become the
mightiest of cedars;
A kingdom
where the tiniest mustard seed
can grow to
become the largest of plants.
And, as sprig,
and twig, and seed
produce
branches, and blossom and thrive,
so the
kingdom becomes a place
where others
flourish:
in a kingdom
where all find shelter and rest.
This is what the kingdom of God is
like...
For the
prophet Ezekiel,
in this
particular passage,
the kingdom
of God was a kingdom that brought
liberation,...
restoration.
Restoration
of the Kingdom of Judah,
under the
restored House of David.
It meant
liberation from the weak King Zedekiah,
who trusted
more in the chariots of Egypt
than in the
Lord God of Israel.
Zedekiah is
‘the tall tree’
that will be ‘brought
down’ -
the ‘green
tree’ that will ‘dry up’.
Restoration,
too, of Jerusalem, of Mount Zion -
‘the high and
lofty mountain’.
It is a
powerful vision bringing good news,
and good news
is sorely needed:
Ezekiel’s
message is delivered to those
living in
dark times -
the people of
the kingdom of Judah.
A small,
insignificant kingdom that
has been
continually toppled and trampled upon.
A kingdom
whose people live with uncertainty;
live with the
bitterness of defeat by Babylon,
live with the
knowledge of
their destroyed
temple,
live in exile
and captivity:
a kingdom of people
living lives
that seem to
have an utterly bleak future.
And, in the
midst of their shattered lives,
Ezekiel,
God’s messenger,
brings them a
vision of hope.
What shall we say the kingdom of God
is like...?
According to
the prophet Ezekiel:
unlike any
other kingdom
the world has
ever known.
A kingdom
where the disregarded and the fearful,
the oppressed,
and the refugee
are given
sanctuary and rest and comfort;
A kingdom of tenderness
and mutual blessing,
a kingdom in
which each inhabitant
seeks to
serve the other:
self-giving,
not self-serving.
A kingdom
that all the kingdoms of the world
will point to
and acknowledge that
this is a
kingdom created and ruled over by
the merciful
and compassionate God.
‘In a situation where the powers of
the world seem to have prevailed
with devastating fury and finality,
the prophet comes along
speaking a word that God will have the
final say.’
[Bert
Marshall, Feasting on the Word, p127]
God neither
tramples nor topples,
rather, God
is the tender gardener
who prunes
and plants.
This is what the kingdom of God is
like...
The words of
Ezekiel can also be heard
in the song
of Mary -
not one of
our readings today,
but the
similarity of the texts are just
too hard to
ignore.
Mary, on
hearing another messenger of God -
the angel,
Gabriel -
bring news of
the growth of the Kingdom
in a most
unlikely way...through her,
rejoices that
God has seen fit to raise
such a humble and lowly-born one as herself
to a
place where all will call her ‘blessed’ among women.
What shall we say the kingdom of God
is like...?
Mary’s song
tells us:
in words of
restoration and liberation;
in a song
evoking the surprising, unconventional, growing Kingdom of God
where the
proud are scattered,
rulers
brought down ‘from their thrones’
where the
hungry are filled with good things...
And Jesus, in
our passage from Mark,
tells us that
it’s:
a kingdom
which sprouts and grows
producing a
great harvest;
and, in what
is an ongoing theme here:
a kingdom in
which the smallest
is the
greatest
and in which,
the greatest provides for the least.
A kingdom where
all humanity can perch under the branches of the Tree of Life -
for the
kingdom is, in effect,
the new Eden,
restored.
It is indeed a
kingdom in which
the seemingly
insignificant matters a great deal...
A kingdom in
which
the out of
place, and the unwanted
are the very
foundations
upon which that kingdom is built:
for, to the
hearers of Jesus’ parables,
mustard
plants where very prolific weeds.
This is what the kingdom of God is
like...
What shall we say the kingdom of God is like...?
It’s a
kingdom in which a man jokes,
and tells
stories to his friends,
and, to anyone with ears to hear...
The stories
seem simple, and homely,
and often
contain bad puns,
for this man
-
who will
become known as the Word of life -
enjoys playing with words,
enjoys the power of words
and knows the
power of
painting pictures with words -
the power of story.
He is a
teller of many stories,
a man who
will become living story,
as those who
hear
pass on his
stories and his story.
His own story
mirrors the kingdom and
the kingdom’s
focus on the small and insignificant, for, in the words
of James
Allen Francis:
‘here is a man who was born in an
obscure village,
the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another obscure village,
where He worked in a carpenter shop
until He was thirty,
and then for three years
He was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never owned a home.
He never had a family.
He never went to college.
He never put his foot inside a big
city.
He never traveled two hundred miles
from the place where He was born.
He never did one of the things
that usually accompany greatness.
He had no credentials but Himself.
While still a young man,
the tide of public opinion turned
against Him.
His friends ran away.
One of them denied Him.
He was turned over to His enemies.
He went through the mockery of a
trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two
thieves.
His executioners gambled for the only
piece of property He had on earth
while He was dying—
and that was his coat.
When he was dead He was taken down
and laid in a borrowed grave
through the pity of a friend.
...centuries have come and gone...
and all the armies that ever marched,
and all the navies that ever were
built,
and all the parliaments that ever sat,
all the kings that ever reigned,
put together
have not affected the life of people
upon this earth
as powerfully as has that One Solitary
Life.’
What shall we say the kingdom of God is like...?
If we want to
know what the Kingdom of God looks like,
we look to
the One who modelled
the Kingdom
of God
in his
person, and in the life he lived: Jesus.
Jesus, who saw those who society had made
invisible, insignificant...
Jesus, who
talked to foreigners,
to
freedom-fighters,
to
collaborators...
to...women!
Who spent
time with thieves and prostitutes
and even
talked to Roman centurions.
Who touched
lepers
and those deemed
‘unclean’ by the powerful.
Who welcomed
friend and stranger
to hear his
stories,
to walk
alongside him,
and to follow
him.
Who, in his
life, his death,
and through
his resurrection
restored and
liberated humanity
and who
continues to give us hope and meaning
in the midst
of our own lives even now.
For the
kingdom is not just some
‘way over
yonder’
‘in the sweet
by and by’,
the Kingdom
of God is within us -
growing
flourishing
restoring and
liberating...
As we learn
to hear Jesus’ words
as we learn
to follow -
our lives
embody the kingdom:
as we make
strangers welcome,
as we create
places where all
can find
shelter and rest,
as we practice
loving-kindness and compassion,
and use our
influence for the greater good,
as we tell
the story of the One who told stories about the Kingdom...
For, in so
doing
This
is what the kingdom of God is like...
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hi - thanks for visiting.
We're always happy to receive comments, however,
we do moderate them to avoid spam.