I remember the teacher at the Vacation Bible School discussing the scripture lesson for the day and then she asked the children to respond to this question: “What is the Kingdom of God like?” Their assignment was to come up with a response in the form of art. Using pencils, crayons, water colors, scissors, paste the children produced many and various expressions of what they believed the kingdom of God was like.
The results were beautiful and diverse. The creativity of the children’s imagination was on full display, and much if not most of the artwork shared a common theme. These works of art imagined the Kingdom of God as active, alive, and growing.
Some kids drew flower beds, butterflies, humming birds and bees. Others sunshine or stars in the night. Some of them portrayed the Kingdom of God as a flower bed or a green garden. Some were pictures involving their friends, neighbors, and family members.
Instead of imagining the Kingdom as static, settled, structured, bolted down, these children imagined the Kingdom of God to be very earthy, earthly, living and growing.
I think these children were on to something. It was as if these children at VBS possessed the Wisdom of Solomon.
What is the Kingdom of God like?
Jesus spoke in parables to describe what the kingdom of God is like. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of “the kingdom of heaven” whereas “kingdom of God” is used in the other Gospels, Matthew’s Gospel speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven. The two phrases mean the same thing. The kingdom looks to God’s future promises and it very much describes the kingdom of Heaven already among us.
Jesus uses earthy things to speak of heavenly realities. He talks about coins, sheep, parties, fish, seeds, weeds, homecomings, pearls and all kinds of images that are living or common to everyday life. These images are used not to explain but to invite us into the parable and to lead us to the very mystery to which they point.
Jesus resists giving us a blueprint or a foolproof definition of the kingdom of God. Jesus prefers to speak in a mystery about the mystery. That is what his parables do.
So, from the Gospel for today, Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God is like …
- A mustard seed that is sown in a field
- Yeast mixed with flour
- Hidden treasure discovered in a field
- A fine pearl of great value
- A great dragnet filled with fish of every kind
Instead of defining the Kingdom of God, Jesus uses parables to hint at the kingdom that is alive and at the very same time hidden. God’s work is active and invisible to most eyes but it contributes to growth over time and produces something that is life-giving.
The wonderful gift of the parables is though they offer no explanation, they do bring us into the very mystery itself.
The Kingdom of God, as those Vacation Bible School children reminded us, is alive, active, ever-growing and at the same time hidden or concealed.
One of the misconceptions of Christian faith is that we have to understand God in order to know or experience God, but the parables of Jesus say otherwise. The parables invite us deeply into the experience of God by appealing not to our reason but to our imaginations.
Jesus uses several parables in today’s Gospel. Now, we could focus on each of these parable but I’m afraid that would take a very long time and we would have no time for coffee fellowship let alone a semi-annual meeting.
So, let’s focus on three: the mustard seed, the yeast, and the treasure in the field.
They share something in common. What do they share in common?
All of them emphasize the hidden nature of God’s kingdom. They proclaim in one way or another that the Kingdom is hidden. This is disappointing news if we want to try to figure things out but it is good and hopeful news if we want to live without the burden of easy answers and still embrace a vision of the Kingdom that Jesus has given us that allows us to continue to grow and grow deeply in God in spite of our inclination to have it all explained. The hidden nature of God underscores the mystery.
So, the three parables …
First, the Parable of the Mustard Seed. Though we conventionally describe kingdoms as regimes, powerful, and mighty, Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like a tiny, minuscule mustard seed. Barely visible, the seed is for all intents and purposes hidden. This might strike us as counterintuitive and contrary to our usual notions of kings and kingdoms but Jesus, by lifting up these ordinary staples of life sort of upends us our minds and hearts. In the parable, Jesus says that what starts as a tiny seed is sown it grows over time into a great mustard shrub and then into a tree where the birds of the air find a welcome and so build nests in the branches.
The second parable about yeast mixed in with flour underscores the hidden nature of God. We can’t see yeast doing its work but we may trust that this yeast is working something. It leavens the whole batch of dough and produced delicious bread.
Finally, in the parable of the Treasure hidden in the field, the treasure is, well, hidden. Then what happens? A person stumbles on to it and discovers and as a result his life changes. With his joy, he sells all he has and buys the field. Upon discovering the treasure of the Gospel, his life has been changed. And in his joy he will give up everything for the sake of enjoying the great treasure that is the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of Heaven is hidden. A hidden treasure goes unnoticed. A seed the size of a mustard seed is barely visible. The yeast is hidden in the flour. And in each instance what seems to us as small or weak, becomes a revelation that God has indeed been at work.
In his book, Tell It Slant, Eugene Peterson write this about Jesus’ parables: “Teaching and preaching are not eliminated, but they do recede to the margins. Jesus circles around his listeners defenses. He tells parables. A parable keeps the message at a distance, slows down comprehension, blocks automatic prejudicial reactions, and dismantles stereotypes. Parables come upon the listener obliquely, on the “slant.” And then, without warning, the parable is an earthquake opening up the ground at your feet.”
The kingdom is, yes, hidden and revealed. Both. The silent work leads to something: A shrub become a tree, yeast leavening the dough for a delicious loaf of bread, and treasure that someone stumbles upon in a field.
Though we are not privy to God’s hidden ways, we do know something of that joy of the fellow who found the treasure, we do know something of the tree that is in the form of a cross that for us is a tree of life that welcomes everyone and promises shade and comfort and stability, and we do know that the Gospel leavens the world and will continue to do so with the amazing gift of God’s forgiveness.
This is the knowing that comes from experience. It is the knowing that is in our gut.
These parables point to the work of God. We cannot bring in the kingdom of God by our human efforts. It’s all gift and God is working silently to heal and transform the whole creation. And we get to be witnesses of that good news not by pretending to have all the answers but use our gifts in service to the mystery humbly and with hope.
Today is our semi-annual meeting and I encourage you to go into the meeting in the same way I encouraged us at the regular annual meeting last January, with thankful hearts for God’s love and trusting that God is indeed up to something in the world and in the church, including this church. We don’t see it while it happens but it is revealed and like the person in the field we do stumble upon and notice it for the treasure that it is.
Where do you see in in our ministry to the neighborhood and the world God’s kingdom revealed? Where do you see good news shared and reconciling love taking place? What do you notice as we come together in community? Where do we see the heart of service to all people, especially the most vulnerable and suffering among us and in the world? Where do you see God’s justice and peace unfolding?
We are not privy to how the mystery comes to us. It is hidden. But we are recipients of the good news and the Gospel revealed in Jesus has changed our lives. The church is called to be sign of this mystery and since the kingdom is primarily the work of God, we need not presume to be in charge or get anxious about thigns over which we have no control.
I believe God is alive and well in our midst. We don’t know how but I believe that the fruit of God’s work is revealed to us as the sense of community grows among us, as new people come and new Christians are baptized, and in our outreach to neighbors.
I wonder what God is stirring up now?
We may not know the answer to that question but of one thing we are certain. Along with St. Paul can say “that neither death, nor life, more angels, nor rulers, nor things present, or things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation shall separate us from the love of God in Christ our Lord.”
Amen.